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216 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Mar., 1899. - 
of our best herds, the wholesale destruction of human food, and the danger, as 
is now proved, to human life and human comfort, and the insidious progress 0 
that fell destroyer, tuberculosis, the ravages of which are only realised by those 
whose duties are connected with public abattoirs and meatworks, or are 
called upon to act as arbiters on the nature of the disease. It is an extremely 
sad commentary on these remarks that Professor Walley himself has died from 
tuberculosis, acquired several years ago by inoculation in connection with his 
profession. 
The more we know about tuberculosis, the more alarmed we become at the 
appalling extent of this disease among cattle. In Denmark alone, during the 
last five years, Bang has tested with tuberculin upwards of 75,000 head of cattle,. 
and of this number no less than 29,775 (39°7 per cent.) were found to be 
affected with tuberculosis, which will give a fair idea of what hold the disease 
has on the cattle of Europe. 
Although Australia and New Zealand are not so seriously affected as the 
older countries of Europe, the returns from the abattoirs and meatworks under 
Government veterinary inspection, and the results of occasional examinations 
with tuberculin on stud and dairy cattle, show that the disease has obtained @ 
foothold in these colonies, and is now causing considerable loss. When we 
consider what marvellous results Bang has achieved during the last five yeas 
by means of the free application of tuberculin test, in gradually eradicating 
tuberculosis from the dairy herds of Denmark, and the decisive action in 
France, Germany, and America, and recently in Great Britain, in their 
endeavours to stamp out tuberculosis, it is not unreasonable to ask the stock- 
owners of Australia to work in harmony, and co-operate in making a desperate 
crusade against what is universally acknowledged to be the most serious of all 
diseases in cattle—viz., tuberculosis—in the first place by the free and constant 
use of tuberculin, and secondly by using only that pleuro virus which has with- 
stood the bacteriological test. It is extremely gratifying to know that the 
demand for pure pieuro virus from the Stock Institute is considerably on the 
increase, and that the tuberculin test is gradually being taken up by the 
breeders of stud cattle and some of our dairy farmers, but, in order to make 
both systems perfect, we necessarily require some legislative action. 
The study of bacteriology is so interesting and important, and opeus Up’ 
such a wide field for speculation and research, that I must be pardoned for 
having dealt with it in more detail than perhaps the compass of this address 
would warrant; but trustthat I have proved to youthestockowners’ indebtedness: 
_ to the microscope, and that all those marvellous and brilliant discoveries relating 
to the origin, nature, prevention, and treatment of bacterial diseases of oul” 
domesticated animals have been mainly brought about by the investigations of 
such brilliant epoch-making men as Pasteur, Koch, and Lister, whose names 
will ever be associated with the microscope, and remain as lasting monuments: 
to the science of preventive medicine. 
TEXAS FEVER. 
INOCULATION. 
Tue following interesting letter has been received by Mr. P. R. Gordon, Chief 
Inspector of Stock, from Dr. J. Sidney Hunt, whose researches into the Texas 
fever, and the means of combating it, have attracted much attention in 
scientific circles :-— 
fe the bullocks “Larry” and “ Tommy,” belonging to Messrs. Edwards 
Bros., of Mackay, that were inoculated by Inspector Haylock with “virulent 
blood from Hughenden that had been treated with camphor after the method of 
Dr. Wynne. 
