92 
GEORGE H. BAILEY. 
public has a right to demand that when they purchase what 
purports to be wholesome milk it shall not have mixed with it 
the germs of a deadly disease. The barns which many of our 
herds inhabit, damp and dark, with no proper drainage or venti¬ 
lation, are a disgrace to civilized life, and if we could have camp- 
meetings in Maine to preach the “ gospel of cleanliness ” instead 
of faith-cures and hypnotism, the public health would be much 
better protected. The story of Moses leading the children of 
Israel out of Egypt, and solving the wonderful problem of re¬ 
storing the national health of a diseased and degraded people, 
by compelling them to live for forty years in conformity to the 
highest sanitary laws, has never yet reached some of the back- 
towns of Maine. Governor Cleaves did not need the lantern of 
Diogenes to find me two honest and earnest men as Asso¬ 
ciate Commissioners, but that our work has in many instances 
been ignorantly opposed and interfered with, is not to be won¬ 
dered. The property rights of the owner, the health of the 
consumer, the liability of the State for indemnity have all to be 
considered, but I regard it to be the first duty of all breeders 
and milkmen to eradicate tuberculosis from their herds, to save 
themselves and their 7 'ep 2 itation^ as well as their customers and 
the public at large. 
It has often been asserted and as often proved, that we have 
far less tuberculosis in Maine than in any other New England 
State, as reflected from our annual reports, but that we have far 
more than can be controlled by any appropriation yet made to 
carry on the work is very apparent. No other New England 
State has less than double the appropriation of Maine, while 
Massachusetts has $300,000 and paid out during 1896 over 
$173,000 for 5198 head of cattle condemned for tuberculosis. 
The present appropriation of Maine, would not last in Massa¬ 
chusetts the present week, and we have thoroughbred herds of 
cattle in this State, that would require the whole of the present 
amount to pay for, if they should all prove diseased. So insidi¬ 
ous, widespread and fatal disease as this, should certainly com¬ 
mand the earnest and thoughtful attention of the present Eegis- 
