52 Report oF DEPARTMENT OF ANIMAL HUSBANDRY OF THE 
these rules, a considerable amount of beef% from tuberculous ani- 
mals is annually included in that class which is justly considered 
the best beef on the American and European markets. 
The animals disposed of by us were sold with the understand- 
ing that they should be sent to slaughter-houses where the car- 
casses would receive an official inspection. 
If one studies the nature of tuberculosis, it is evident, as experi- 
ments and practice have shown, that localized lesions enclose the 
tubercle bacteria and that the danger from consuming the flesh 
of such animals is very slight. If the disease is generalized, 1. e., 
the lesions are distributed in the organs of both the large body 
cavities or, according to Ostertag, if there is an old tubercular 
lesion and many small miliary tubercles in organs in the same 
body cavity, the carcass should be condemned. 
Experience has shown that when reacting animals of a herd 
are killed, after the tuberculin test, a very large percentage of 
them are so slightly diseased that the lesions would have escaped 
notice had the animal been killed in the ordinary way for beef, 
or, if the changes are in evidence they would not, because of their 
localization, condemn the carcass. In view of the practice of 
various national meat inspections which have proven to be safe, 
it seems perfectly proper and just that animals that have reacted 
to tuberculin but which, from the flesh point of view, are in a 
fit condition for beef should be retained for food providing they 
pass inspection under the rules of the Federal Meat Inspection 
Service. 
It is most unfortunate that the butchers of our small towns 
and cities, and often those slaughtering for home consumption in 
our larger cities, are permitted to sell meat from animals that are 
not so inspected at the time of slaughter. In the absence of 
such a general system, the published rules of the Federal Meat 
Inspection Service (see page 33) make it possible for a competent 
veterinarian to decide for the owner whether or not a carcass can 
* According to the report of the Bureau of Animal Industry its represen- 
tatives, during the fiscal year 1903-04, made post-mortem inspection of 
6,383,080 cattle and 24,170,230 hogs. Of these 10,173 carcasses and 703 
parts of carcasses of cattle and 34,656 carcasses and 181,820 parts of carcasses 
of hogs were condemned for tuberculosis. 
