UNSUSPECTED POISONING BY MEAT AND MILK BY TUBERCULOUS ANIMALS. 669 
and a tuberculous man often reacts under a dose of I mm. 
Small doses, therefore, must be accepted as hurtful to the phth¬ 
isical man. 
It may be safely held as proved, by analogy, observation 
and experiment, that the soluble poisons of tuberculosis, invari¬ 
ably operate by exaggerating any existing tuberculous process, 
and that all blood and all animal fluids, becoming charged with 
such poisons, uniformly tend to still further endanger the health, 
or even the life, of any person who may consume them while 
suffering from tuberculosis. 
We may freely allow that the transmission of the bacillus 
from man to man is far more common than from beast to man. 
But though the implanted seed may have been in many cases 
derived from a fellow-man, its subsequent destructive progress 
may be due far more to the constant accessions of the soluble 
toxic products conveyed in the meat and milk of the tuberculous 
animals. Without these constant doses of the soluble poisons 
of tubercle the implanted germ would in many cases have 
proved comparatively harmless. Although it could be proved, 
in regard to many cases, that the cow had not contributed the 
seed of the disease, she is left little less responsible for its 
destructive progress and fatal result. The germ, which might 
have remained comparatively dormant and harmless in the ab¬ 
sence of the poisoned meat and milk, is by these stimulated to 
a more deadly energy. 
This hitherto unchallenged factor in the progress of tuber¬ 
culosis opens up new and uncultivated fields for sanitary work. 
The great evil ventilated in the paper cannot be effectually met 
without the eradication of tuberculosis from every herd kept for 
the supply of food products for the public. Nothing short of 
this can be trusted to operate satisfactorily in putting a check 
upon the present fearful mortality from this disease. No in¬ 
spection of dressed carcasses, nor of milk, butter and cheese 
will furnish a guarantee. We must go to the herds and subject 
them, animal by animal, to a critical test, and only accept the 
products as safe when there is no longer a shadow of suspicion 
