BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS. 
79 
And the Brussels Congress of 1888 in summing up, says : 
Tuberculosis has been observed in all warm-blooded animals 
submitted to domesticity or deprived of their liberty. The dis¬ 
ease is contagious in man and animals and transmitted by he¬ 
redity.” 
The Maine State Board of Health, in a concise and instruc¬ 
tive circular, on the Contagious Diseases of Animals, says that tu¬ 
berculosis or the “ Pearl Disease ” of cattle is essentially the same 
disease as human consumption. It is both contagious and he¬ 
reditary, but contagion, in animals at least, is a greater factor in 
its propagation than heredity. 
While agreeing entirely with the latter statement, it seems 
particularly unfortunate for those who deny heredity altogether, 
that so many of the human family die annually of phthisis whose 
history show their parents, one or both, died of the same disease. 
Ten years ago we had one of the most virulent outbreaks of tu¬ 
berculosis ever known upon our State College farm at Orono. 
Its members, consisting largely of Jerseys, had been selected with 
:great care and expense, from many sources, and the herd was 
increased by retaining the heifers and disposing of the male 
calves.' Fifty-one animals (the entire herd) were condemned 
and destroyed, the autopsies proving in every instance the ani¬ 
mals to be thoroughly diseased ; even in calves a few weeks or a 
few months old, an unerring diagnosis could be rendered and 
confirmed. I found at Orono four generations of milch cows, a 
heifer, her dam, grand dam, and great grand-dam, standing side 
by side, all diseased, and were it not for an occasional tell-tale 
cough, and a typical temperature of about 103° (39.4 C.), appa¬ 
rently in perfect health, enough so that several cows in that herd 
had produced fourteen to fifteen pounds of butter within the 
week before the slaughter. Dr. Rich of Vermont, says “ the form 
of tuberculosis most commonly met with in cattle is decidedly 
chronic, and might very properly be called chronic disseminated 
iuberculosisy This fact causes incredulity on the part of own¬ 
ers and others regarding the existence of so dangerous disease 
in fine looking herds, and is doubtless due to the chronicity of 
