TUBERCULOSIS IN CATTLE. ae f 
a certain number of bacteriologists who claim that this is the 
common method of the distribution of the disease, and some 
who even insist that this is practically the only method by 
which cattle obtain tuberculosis. These bacteriologists point 
to a number of very significant facts. In the first place, they 
emphasize the fact that cattle do not void sputum, while, on 
the other hand, they show the great likelihood that the disease 
may pass from man to the animal because of this habit of 
spitting. That the sputum of the consumptive patient con- 
tains the bacilli in large quantities has long been demonstrated, 
and when this is voided in the barn and becomes dry it may 
pass into the air and be breathed in by the animals, or, if it 
comes in contact with the hay or even with the floor in the 
vicinity of the cow stall, it may be taken into the animal with its 
food. The chance for such distribution is certainly very great, 
for attendants are certainly not particular in regard to spitting. 
These bacteriologists further point to significant facts in re- 
gard to the relation of the disease in animals and man. They 
show us that so long as calves come in contact only with their 
mothers the amount of tuberculosis is very small; that the 
amount of the disease, however, increases rapidly year after 
year, and that this increase in the disease is directly propor- 
tional to'the contact with man. Calves apparently do not, as 
a rule, take the disease from the animals with which they are 
associated, but as they are year after year more and more 
closely associated with man, in milking and in the general care, 
the amount of tuberculosis increases. They tell, too, that the 
amount of the disease in a herd is largely proportional to the 
healthfulness of its attendants. In sanitary institutes, for in- 
stance, where the attendants of the cattle are presumably in 
considerable measure suffering from tuberculosis, the amount 
of tuberculosis among the cattle is always very great. We 
are told that there are practically no cases of healthful herds 
where they are attended by the patients of sanitary institutes. 
These bacteriologists tell us, further, that the condition of the 
herd may be always predicted from the condition of the family 
that has charge of the herd. If the inspector looks first at the 
people on the farm and finds one or two of them that appear 
to have traces of tuberculosis he can predict with absolute cer- 
tainty that he will find the same disease among the cattle: 
These facts together have led to an assumption that the trans- 
ference of the disease from man to animals is not only common, 
but it is the greatest source of the disease among animals. 
