THE TUBERCULIN TEST IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
405 
Again, as to the milk of the majority of the 130 cows first 
examined and all of the last 20, I think that every susceptible 
person, with predisposing weaknesses, is a thousandfold more 
exposed to the danger of infection in our city streets, in public 
conveyances, and the poorer classes in all their surroundings, 
than from the consumption of milk from such cows. 
If this examination is any criterion of the percentage of 
tuberculosis in the dairies supplying our cities and towns, then 
there is scarcely a person who does not take tubercle bacilli into 
his system more or less frequently. As of the seeds which fall 
on stony ground, and fail to develop, so of the tubercle bacilli ; 
unless the individual supplies a suitable soil for them, they pass 
on harmless, or die in the juices of the digestive tract. In con¬ 
sidering this question, nothing is so important as the power of 
resistance of the strong, rugged organism, and the many condi¬ 
tions unfavorable to the development of the bacilli. It is im¬ 
portant to remember that the infection of man by bovine tuber¬ 
cle bacilli is not proven, nor is the absolute identity of the 
bacilli of man and cattle. Efforts to transmit human tuber¬ 
culosis to cattle have signally failed in producing any such 
thing as general tuberculosis in cattle. 
It must be evident to you that the State cannot control the 
introduction of absolutely tuberculosis-free cattle from other 
States, even if “tested,” for the repletion of our dairies, and 
that under existing conditions the driving of cattle from one 
State to another is a comparatively easy matter. On this 
account the State paying the most for “ reacting ” cattle is sure 
to have the most to pay for. 
Finally, so long as cows have to be treated as mere machines ; 
so long as they have to be confined for practically six months in 
the year, and often for the whole twelve months, in order to get 
all possible out of them ; so long as no attention is paid to the 
exclusion of suspicious stock from breeding; so long as this 
whole system continues, the State may proceed on its present 
plan, but in the end it will find it is trying to bail out the 
Atlantic with a tin dipper, paying a terrible price for the experi- 
-ence, but doing little to lessen the disease. 
Thanking you for the confidence you have honored me with, 
and trusting to have merited the distincticn, I remain. 
Your obedient servant, 
Frank S. Bilkings, M.D. 
The following post-mortem findings accompany Dr. Billings’ 
report :• 
