TUBERCULOSIS IN CATTLE. 31 
leading to the belief that the danger of distribution of the dis- 
ease by the flesh in. our markets is extremely small, so slight, 
indeed, as almost to be neglected. In the first place, no actual 
cases of the disease being transmitted to man by flesh are 
known. ‘This, however, may be due to the difficulty of getting 
evidence of such cases, even if they should occur. But. the 
actual danger appears to be slight. A considerable majority 
of the slaughtered animals, even though suffering from the 
disease, have the infection localized only in a few glands. In 
the ordinary cases the infection is almost always either in the 
abdominal organs or in the lungs or in some of the lymphatic 
glands. It is only under very exceptional circumstances that 
the disease is found in the muscles. Now, if the organs of the 
thorax and the abdomen are removed after slaughter, all of the 
organs most ordinarily affected are separated, and the flesh 
which is sold and consumed for food will contain, in the vast 
majority of cases, no tuberculous lesion. No one holds that 
the presence of a small tuberculous gland in the abdomen 
can have any deleterious effect upon the flesh, and if properly 
slaughtered the flesh of such animals is wholesome. Such 
flesh may, it is true, become contaminated during the slaugh- 
tering and dressing by the use of unclean knives. It is said 
that the butcher in removing the visceral organs of the abdo- 
men may cut through the tuberculous parts, his knife may thus 
become smeared with the tubercle bacilli, and in the subsequent 
cutting up of the animal the flesh itself may become similarly 
smeared. Of course, a remedy against such infection would 
be in a more careful use of the knives. But, even supposing 
the flesh to be thus contaminated, it is only infected upon its 
surface, and such contamination never affects the interior of 
the muscle mass. Now, it must be remembered that the flesh 
of animals is practically always cooked before it is eaten. It 
is well known that a moderate temperature, 170° (70° C.) for 
a few moments, will either completely destroy the tubercle 
bacilli or so lower their vitality that they are no longer in- 
jurious. Hence it follows that the cooking which the flesh 
receives will practically destroy all danger of the disease being 
transferred by means of it. It is true that in cooking of beef 
the interior of the mass frequently may not reach a tempera- 
ture of 170°, but the surface is practically always thus heated, 
and this secondary contamination from butchers’ knives, being 
wholly superficial, will be entirely remedied by the cooking. 
As the result of a long series of inquiries the almost universal 
