REPORT OF THE TUBERCULOSIS COMMITTEE. 
455 
reliable statistics can be obtained. Some herds have been 
reported as showing a very small proportion of animals 
affected, while in others the proportion reported has been 
frightfully high. We are warranted in saying that tubercu¬ 
losis is quite prevalant in some regions, that occasional cases 
occur almost everywhere, and that the disease seems to be 
spreading. The great dangers from tuberculosis in cattle are 
first, its transmission through the meat and milk to man, and 
second, its relating to the transmission from diseased to 
healthy cattle. From the standpoint of public health both of 
these questions are of vital importance, for the first depends 
to a great extent upon the latter. The importance of the 
maintenance of such a system as would keep the public in¬ 
formed of the dangers from animals suffering with disease 
communicable to man, demands that our profession be repre¬ 
sented on city and state boards of health equally with the 
medical profession. 
While it is quite proper that state governments should 
protect its citizens as much as possible against diseases trans¬ 
missible from the lower animals to man, yet any effort on 
their part must of necessity amount to but little without 
the hearty co-operation of the national Government. Some 
means for obtaining fairly reliable statistics of the number of 
animals affected should be devised, and a much more gener¬ 
ous spirit should be manifested toward the scientific investi¬ 
gation of these subjects by the Department of Agriculture. 
The Bureau of Animal Industry should not be hampered by 
lack of facilities for carrying on the work, and its employees 
should be chosen on account of their special fitness for the 
work and not for purely political reasons, Then, and then 
only, will the work which can be so well done by this bureau 
have its effect and redound to the credit of the veterinary 
profession of the United States. Though much has been 
accomplished by the earnest endeavors of many of those 
connected with the bureau, yet the public has a right to de¬ 
mand, and we believe soon will demand, that the field of 
research be more fully covered and that it be conducted on 
purely professional and scientific principles. 
