BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS. 
83 
■cases of phthisis which he met with in foetuses of cattle, and 
says these cases sufficiently prove that tuberculosis may be de¬ 
veloped during the embryonic period, and that it is readily trans¬ 
mitted through heredity. Muller, slaughtered a calf derived 
from a cow affected with tuberculosis. At the autopsy, several 
nodules were found on the costal and pulmonary pleura, and the 
lymphatic glands (greatly increased in volume) had undergone 
caseous degeneration. Muller concluded from these facts that 
the disease is transmitted from mother to progeny, and that the 
latter from the moment of birth may possess not only the pre¬ 
disposition, but even present the patent lesions of the malady. 
Fleming says that “ animals descended from tuberculotis 
parents inherit a special predisposition to the disease. As there 
is every reason to believe that the malady is hereditary, cattle 
having any tendency to it should not be bred from. In human 
medicine an analogous if not identical opinion has been enter¬ 
tained from the earliest times to the present day, and it is indeed 
astonishing that in the presence of this evidence the existence of 
a predisposition to, as well as the hereditary transmission of the 
malady should not have been accepted without discussion.” 
Dr. Blaine (M.D.), Assistant Physician to the Willard Asy¬ 
lum for the Insane, at Willard, New York, has recently con¬ 
tributed to the Medical Record a paper on bovine tuberculosis ; 
its communication by ingestion, inhalation and hereditary 
transmission ; also its dangers to the public health, in which he 
gives a full account of the sudden outbreak of tuberculosis, 
whereby the asylum sustained the loss of nearly two hundred 
head of valuable Holsteins. 
Dr. Blaine says of the Holstein bull, “ he had not manifested 
any cough, but was rapidly losing flesh and it was decided to 
kill him. The bronchial glands were greatly enlarged and on 
cross section were found calcified. There were many tubercles 
upon the peritoneum and bowels. Upon the glands penis were 
several small tubercles having the appearance of a soft chancre.” 
It is not an unusual occurrence for animals well advanced in 
tuberculosis to abort. Many of the asylum calves were prema- 
