SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
59 
Commission had $300,000 to spend, and last year $250,000, and this year 
there is a very strong feeling of economy in this State, and they are going 
to try to have only $150,000, We killed about 5400 head of cattle last 
year under the tuberculin test; we had about 10,000 returned as sus¬ 
picious. Of these there were about 4000 found to be healthy, and about 
5400 were quarantined. This saved $185,000, If an animal is quaran¬ 
tined by an inspector under suspicion, we send an agent of the Board to 
examine the animal, who as a rule tests them with tuberculin, and it 
condemned the owner is allowed an amount not to exceed $60. The law 
says that any animal that is diseased is unfit for human food, and it 
says that tuberculosis is a disease that is dangerous to the human family, 
but it seems to me tuberculin is an extravagant way to work on. There 
are a lot infected in the mediastinal glands which are killed and used for 
fertilizer. The law is now changed so that we do not pay over $30, but 
it is uncertain whether this limit as to value will continue, as there are 
a great manj^ cases where people are keeping cows to put them in quaran¬ 
tine so as to sell them to the State and get the price allowed. I think 
that where a cow is condemned there should be a system whereby the 
carcass could be used as a fertilizer and the money received for it be 
returned to the owner. I think that in all our States the rules for meat 
inspection should be made to conform with the U. S. Bureau of Animal 
Industry, They have meat inspection under certain rules throughout 
the country. If the animal has a slight localized lesion it is passed ; if it 
is generalized, the carcass is thrown away. I think that as far as public 
health goes we have to look at it from two standpoints. First, the pos¬ 
sible danger from cows that are tuberculous, the other, that it is a con¬ 
tagious disease. I think that if we killed badly divSeased animals on 
physical examination, those which have tnberculous udders for instance, 
it would be cheaper. A cow may have actinomycosis or inflammation of 
the udder, and she will produce germs which are parasitic in character, 
which of course are injurious to the milk. It is very necessary that the 
conditions under which milk is produced should be known. For that 
reason I think that a fixed method of dairy inspection is very impor¬ 
tant. 
For the past year Dr. Theobold Smith has been doing a good deal of 
work in this line. He says there js a difference between bovine tuber¬ 
culosis and human. It is found that the bacillus from human is more 
slender than that of cattle, which is thick and harder to cultivate. When 
human bacillus is injected between the ribs it produces a slight localized 
lesion or small abscesses, whereas the bovine germ injected in the same 
way has produced in two weeks or a few months generalized tuberculosis. 
Some counteract quicker than others. 
As a great deal of milk comes from outside of the State it is doubtful 
what the result of inspection would be ; the only way would be to license 
each dairyman, who would have to have a certain standard to go by. 
In dealing with contagious diseases and in using the tuberculin test 
we have to have the co-operation of the owner, for if he is careless about 
disinfection we cannot depend on him very much. 
Then Dr. W. Horace Hoskins, of Philadelphia, was intro¬ 
duced, and spoke as follows : 
The subject which is open for consideration and which has been so 
