CONTAGIOUS DISEASES-NEW DISCOVERIES. 
399 
diagnosis. All uncertainty disappears the moment the micro¬ 
scope reveals the bacillus in its natural condition. 
What important discoveries are these, not only to the physi¬ 
cian, but to us veterinarians ! I have said that the contagious 
character of the disease from man to animals, and from animals 
to animals, had been proved. We know that the feeding of ani¬ 
mals with the tuberculous matter either of man or animals, has 
been followed by the development of the disease. We also know 
that inoculation has produced it, aud though I am not aware that 
as yet any positive evidence has been recorded of contagion to 
man by feeding on tuberculous products of animals,' we can 
understand and believe, however, that it may take place. One of 
our members, Or. Peabody, has informed me of a case of un- 
• doubted contagion, in a child who died in Providence some years 
ago, from tuberculous meningitis. The father of the child had a 
cow, whose milk was used as food for the little one ; the cow hav¬ 
ing subsequently died, a post mortem examination revealed ex¬ 
tensive tuberculous lesions of the lungs. Without doubt her 
udder was also diseased, and I have no doubt that the child was 
inoculated through the milk with the disease which carried him 
off. 
In the presence of facts like this, and with our present knowl¬ 
edge, obtained by the experiments instituted and recorded, what 
must be our obvious duties in the case ? Must we not prevent 
the keeping of animals thus affected, and prevent the use of their 
products? Put to do this, must we not be sure of the correct¬ 
ness of our diagnosis, and while' admitting that tuberculous ani¬ 
mal food cannot only produce tuberculosis in other animals, but 
in man also, must we not be certain that the victim we are about 
to condemn to destruction is truly tuberculous ? 
The discovery of Dr. Koch has already proved itself highly 
beneficial in human medicine, and I have already published an 
article in a recent number of the American Veterinary Review, 
explaining the method of applying it to veterinary diagnosis by 
Professor Nocard of Alfort. fie hud several cows upon which 
he had pronounced a verdict of phthisis-pulmonalis, and the ex¬ 
amination of the sputa of these animals under the microscope 
