PROGRESS IN VETERINARY MEDICINE. 
807 
the treatment of lockjaw ; diphtheria antitoxin employed in 
the treatment of diphtheria, as well as other antitoxins em¬ 
ployed in the treatment of anthrax, rabies and other diseases. 
It is impossible to estimate the value of animal serums to man¬ 
kind employed for diagnostic, prophylactic and therapeutic 
purposes. 
The position taken by Professor Koch in the recent British 
Congress on Tuberculosis has awakened a great deal of interest 
in the question of the transmissibility of the tubercle bacillus 
from animal to man and from man to animal. 
The experiments showing the difficulty or the impossibility 
of transmitting human tuberculosis to cattle in a fatal form can¬ 
not be accepted as evidence that the bovine bacillus, which is 
far more virulent and fatal for many animals, cannot infect 
man. On the contrary, 'the greater disease-producing power of 
the bovine bacillus would appear to make it more dangerous 
for human beings as well as for lower animals. 
The evidence showing the practical impossibility of cattle 
being infected with human tuberculosis under ordinary condi¬ 
tions is a great encouragement for the eradication of bovine 
tuberculosis, since it proves that the danger so often feared that 
cattle if freed from the disease would be immediately reinfected 
from mankind, does not exist in fact, and need not be con¬ 
sidered. 
Even if it were true that bovine tuberculosis is not com¬ 
municable to man it would nevertheless be to the interest of 
cattle and swine growers to have the disease eradicated as an 
economic measure ; and such eradication would also be to the 
interest of the public, since it would have great effect as a 
means of preserving the food supply of the nation and of pro¬ 
tecting consumers from the unwholesome products of diseased 
animals. 
The communicability of tuberculosis received its full share 
of attention at the recent annual meeting of the American 
Veterinary Medical Association held at Atlantic City last Sep¬ 
tember, and resolutions were adopted expressing the sense of 
