BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS. 
363 
eating or drinking tuberculous meat or milk, or by direct 
hereditary transmission. In the matter of diseased meat, the 
divergence of opinion on the subject is peculiar. 
Bollinger, Kastron, Nocard and others have come to the 
conclusion “ that the flesh of tuberculous animals is only ex¬ 
ceptionally dangerous, and even in these exceptional cases 
it is dangerous only in a slight degree.” Other observers 
hold the opposite opinion, and at the Congress for the Study 
of Tuberculosis, held in France in 1889, and at the Congress 
of Hygiene and Demography, held in London in 1890, reso¬ 
lutions were passed recommending absolute seizure of meat 
wherever there was any trace of disease in the carcass. Not¬ 
withstanding their action in the matter, however, there is a 
general tendency both in Europe and in this country to take 
a more moderate view, and when lesions are found to be 
localized and the flesh in good condition the carcass is not 
generally condemned. 
With regard to milk from tuberculous animals, the ex¬ 
periments of Ernst and Peters, Hirschberger.and others have 
demonstrated the fact that milk from tuberculous cows is 
dangerous, even when the udder is perfectly healthy. The 
experiments of Hirschberger, which are exceedingly interest¬ 
ing, show “ that the danger varies at different times, being 
present when spores from some focus of infection happened 
to be absorbed into the blood current and were excreted by 
the milk.” These experiments also showed that the milk of 
tuberculous cows is dangerous in fifty-five per cent, of cases. 
Bollinger, however, showed that the virulence was to a 
great extent lost when the milk was mixed with that of 
healthy cows. Negative results being obtained in one case 
“ with a dilution of one in forty, in another, one in fifty, in 
another, one in one hundred.” “ Milk is rendered less dan¬ 
gerous by admixture with other milk,” and while “ the ad¬ 
vancing disease in one cow increases the virulence of its 
milk, dilution with milk of other cows lessens the virulence.” 
(Manual of Medical Science, 1890, P. A. S.). 
So that while there is danger in using milk from tubercu¬ 
lous cows, the actual danger is not so great as one might sup- 
