BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS. 
81 
He also wrote me on Nov. 19th : 
My Dear Doctor :—Your letter rec’d. I am glad you wrote me concerning this, as it 
gives me the opportunity to say that by chance I saw a portion of lung left at the Am. 
Vet. College, from the calf of one of the cows of the Orono herd. These lungs show un¬ 
mistakable lesions of tuberculosis. V\ hy don’t you hunt up all such bulls and have them 
destroyed ? 1 here can be but little doubt that they will all sooner or later develop this 
disease, and will serve to extend it in many herds where their services are required. The 
Commissioners and the State Veterinarian more than all will be directly responsible for 
every case of such extension. Ifi the eyes of all veterinarians you will deserve censure if 
you fail to follow up each animal. With regards to all, I am. 
Sincerely yours, Ch B. Michener. 
Upon investigation, twelve out of fourteen of those bulls 
proved by post-mortem examinations publicly made to be thor- 
oughly diseased. The year following the slaughter, some cases 
of tuberculosis were reported upon a farm at West Uebanon, Me., 
and some very interesting cases were disclosed which have an 
important bearing upon the previous cases at Orono, and would 
seem to set forever at rest the wisdom of the investigating com¬ 
mittee who reported : 
“ In relation to the cattle sold from the College farm, for 
several years past, we must certainly recommend a most careful 
examination of those animals, and especially the bulls recently 
sold therefroni^ by a competent Board of Cattle Commissioners, 
to the end that every vestige of said disease, wherever found, 
may be stamped out and destroyed.” The herd at Lebanon con¬ 
sisted of seven cows, four of which were the product of the Jer¬ 
sey bull “ Butter Boy,” purchased of the State College Farm. 
The first symptoms of these heifers had been nearly identical, 
and previous to calving no alarm had been felt about them, but 
soon after that event they commenced coughing until they all 
showed unmistakable evidence of the disease. The bull had al¬ 
ready ‘‘ gone wrong ” and had been previously killed. 
Upon a critical examination of these heifers, I found them all 
diseased, the autopsies verifying my diagnosis in every instance ; 
while the significant fact remains, that these heifers zvere all out 
of sonnd cows^ there have never been, previously or since, any 
other diseased bovines upon that farm. 
I take the broad ground that every one of those bulls were 
