200 
L. MC LEAN. 
if strict attention in the matter of detail is necessary for success 
in antiseptic surgery, it is in a two-fold degree more so to pre¬ 
vent the contamination of milk outside of the animal system. 
Now, gentlemen, what about the milk of diseased cows? I 
have no hesitation in saying that the milk of an animal affected 
with any contagious disease, whether zymotic or septic, should he 
condemned. One can readily reason on scientific principles that 
such milk cannot be healthy, and it would he folly on our part to 
wait for universal evidence in every instance of its pernicious 
effects. There is positive proof of the milk from an animal af¬ 
fected with tuberculosis when fed to other animals producing that 
disease, whether you have lesions in the mammary gland or not, 
and I have known of a whole litter of twelve young pigs die 
within twenty-four hours after partaking of the milk of a cow 
affected with epizootic aptha. 
A few words as to the advisability of using the flesh of ani¬ 
mals affected with a contagious disease as an article of diet: 
Many of our profession are in favor of rejecting all such animals 
as being unfit for human consumption, while others advocate the 
rejection of only certain portions of the carcase, although the lat¬ 
ter always qualify their position by the proviso that the flesh be 
well cooked. From this point of view how futile and inoperative 
is the safeguard they employ, as in members of your own families 
how often is it found that rare meat is preferable, and how fre¬ 
quently do you hear it in our restaurants ordered as “ rare,” 
with a strong emphasis put on the latter condition. Is it possible 
that an animal affected with a zymotic disease at a certain stage 
of that disease can in any portion be free from contamination ? 
The position of those who advocate the use of certain portions 
of the animal amounts to, from their standpoint, the acceptation 
of the idea that certain parts are good and others bad. Is it not 
more rational and consistent that all are bad, but certain portions 
worse ? I do not say but that an animal having lung lesions of 
contagious pleuro-pneumonia may, at a certain period, be made 
prime meat, but I hold that during the incubative stage, where 
you always find a high temperature, that the carcase as. a whole 
should be condemned, under every other extenuating condition, 
