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COLEMAN NOCKOLDS. 
Many of the States are taking active measures in the control 
and suppression of contagious diseases of domesticated animals. 
There are many diseases which are transmissible from animal 
to man. I will briefly mention a few of the more important ones. 
Tuberculosis causes about one-seventh of all deaths of man¬ 
kind. It kills more people than all the wars and outbreaks of 
cholera, yellow fever and small-pox combined. In 1882 Koch 
"discovered the bacillus tuberculosis, the cause of the disease. 
Tuberculosis of man, cattle, and other animals is one and 
the same disease and due to bacillus tuberculosis. The germ 
may be in any or every tissue of the body. The disease takes 
the same form in animals as in man ; it is characterized by the 
formation of tubercles in one or more parts of the system and 
by its destructive tendency. There are not a few cases on 
record where a cow affected with the disease has been intro¬ 
duced into a herd hitherto free from it and most of the animals 
have taken the disease. 
Tuberculosis is very common amongst cattle, especially 
milch cows of the more delicate breeds, but no breed is immune. 
I11 some localities 80 per cent, are affected. The animals 
most liable to the disease after cattle are the pig, sheep and 
wild animals in confinement. Dogs become affected through 
licking sputum containing the germs. Horses are sometimes 
victims of tuberculosis, but not commonly. 
Tuberculosis can be contracted by man from animals by eat¬ 
ing the flesh, drinking the milk or by the same means as it is 
transmitted from one person to another, viz., by respiratory or 
alimentary tract or inoculation. It is mentioned in the third 
book of Moses, Chapter xxn, that he forbade the consumption of 
the flesh of animals affected with tuberculosis. This disease has 
been recognized in most countries and at all periods, although 
the deadly nature of it was not fully known until late, years. 
During the nth and 12th centuries Arabian and Hebrew 
* 
doctors wrote of it. In the 9th century church laws forbade the 
use of meat of affected animals. Similar measures were taken 
in different countries at different times. It is reported that in 
