CONGRESS ON TUBERCULOSIS. 
467 
undertaken by the various local authorities, each of which 
would supervise the cows and cowsheds in its own district ; but 
the compulsory inspection of all the milch cows in the country 
would be a very large undertaking, and perhaps it would be 
premature to press for it. In the meantime, a good case can 
be made out for making general the special powers relating to 
inspection of cows in outside districts which a few fortunate 
cities have acquired by special Acts of Parliament. This also 
was one of the directions in which the members of the Second 
Royal Commission on Tuberculosis considered immediate action 
to be necessary. 
There remain for consideration some other safeguards which 
would doubtless be less effective than those just discussed, but 
which, unlike these, would not be difficult to enforce, viz.:— 
(i) compulsory notification of udder disease and of any symp¬ 
toms of tuberculosis in milch cows, with, of course, the power 
to inflict a considerable fine for not reporting; and (2) the in¬ 
terdiction of the sale of milk from any cow suffering from 
tuberculous disease of the udder, or exhibiting clinical signs of 
tuberculosis. Against the demand for the amendment of the 
existing law to the extent of granting the public these 
very reasonable safeguards against infection through milk 
it cannot be urged that they would be very expensive, 
or that they would press harshly on private interests. 
The present state of the law, or rather the almost entire ab¬ 
sence of any law, dealing with tuberculous udder disease in cows 
is a scandal and a reproach to civilization. It scarcely sounds 
credible, but it is a fact that the owner of a cow in the most 
advanced state of tuberculosis, and exhibiting the most mani¬ 
fest signs of udder disease, may sell that cow’s milk for human 
food as long as the sale has not been specially interdicted on the 
certificate of a veterinary surgeon, and no penalty attaches 
to this crime of deliberately or carelessly placing on the market 
a food material charged with the germs of a dangerous disease. 
In the interests of public health, the sale of milk from 
tuberculous udders, and from cows that are obviously tubercu¬ 
lous in any part of the body, must be stopped, and it must be 
declared illegal to keep such animals alive. There need be no 
hesitation in pressing for this reform, because the measures de¬ 
manded are in the interests of the owners of cattle, and would 
be advisable even if it were established that bovine tubercu¬ 
losis is not transmissible to man. There is no dispute as to the 
danger of visibly tuberculous animals to others of their own 
