B14 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
December  23,  1897. 
array  of  figures — figures  that  he  has  received  from  some  of  the 
greatest  veterinarians  in  the  vporld,  men  who  have  made  this 
particular  disease  almost  a  life  study. 
Granted  that  this  tuberculosis  exists  to  such  a  great  extent  among 
cattle  (and  Professor  MacFadgean  is  of  opinion  that  one  cow  out  of 
every  four  is  more  or  less  tuberculous),  can  this  disease  be  trans¬ 
mitted  from  the  animal  to  man  ?  We  say  most  undoubtedly  so,  and 
in  more  ways  than  one.  The  disease  is  caused  by  an  organism 
known  as  Koch’s  bacillus,  and  whenever  this  bacillus  establishes 
itself  in  an  animal,  the  growth  of  a  tubercle  follows.  Sometimes  the 
bacillus  lodges  in  a  vital  organ,  such  as  the  lungs  or  kidneys  ;  some¬ 
times  only  in  the  muscular  tissue. 
An  animal  in  healthy  surroundings  has  a  better  chance  of  throw¬ 
ing  off  the  complaint ;  an  animal  in  a  crowded,  ill-ventilated,  dark 
shed  has  no  chance  whatever.  Now,  suppose  a  cow  whose  life  is 
spent  practically  in  confinement ;  she  has  these  tubercles  on  the  lungs, 
or  the  kidneys  or  bowels,  or,  worse  than  all,  on  the  udder.  She  is 
continually  passing  off  these  bacilli  into  the  surrounding  air  or  into 
the  milk  pail.  The  sheds  are  warm  and  dark,  and  therefore  most 
probably  dirty ;  the  air  is  full  of  germs,  only  waiting  to  transmit 
themselves  to  some  other  convenient  breeding  ground,  either  in  the 
bodies  of  other  cows  or  oxen,  or  in  the  bodies  of  men. 
Well,  a  reader  may  say.  Why  allow  these  animals  to  live? 
Quite  right ;  but  till  Government  is  ready  to  pay  part  compensation 
to  the  owner  for  his  loss,  he  is  not  likely  to  pose  as  a  public  benefactor, 
and  slaughter  all  “  suspects.”  For  instance,  a  small  farmer  with  a 
herd  of  eighteen  cattle  gets  an  inspector  to  examine  them  for  traces  of 
tuberculosis;  out  of  the  eighteen  seventeen  are  found  to  be  diseased. 
To  kill  these  seventeen,  without  any  hope  of  part  compensation,  of 
course  means  ruin. 
Then,  again,  it  is  often  that  the  disease  exists  unsuspected.  A 
case  is  reported  of  an  apparently  healthy  cow  being  killed  ;  the 
whole  of  the  body  was  perfectly  clear  till  the  udder  was  examined, 
and  there  among  the  milk  glands  was  found  a  formation  about  the 
size  of  an  egg  full  of  yellow  serum.  In  another  case  the  calf  of 
an  apparently  healthy  cow  developed  diarrhoea,  which  ceased  as  soon 
as  the  call’s  food  was  changed.  The  cow  was  slaughtered,  and  the 
udder  was  found  to  be  one  mass  of  corruption.  Nice,  this,  for  the 
consumers  of  the  unboiled  milk. 
Whether  the  milk  of  a  cow  is  full  of  bacilli  where  the  udder  is 
not  affected  seems  still  to  be  an  open  question.  Professor  Long 
appears  to  think  the  danger  is  there,  and  Dr.  Ernst,  an  American 
authority,  says :  “  First  and  emphatically  that  the  milk  from  cows 
affected  with  tuberculosis  in  any  part  of  the  body  may  contain  the 
virus  of  the  disease.  Second,  that  there  is  no  ground  for  the  assertion 
that  there  must  be  a  lesion  of  the  udder  before  the  milk  can  contain 
the  infection  of  tuberculosis.  Third,  that  on  the  contrary  the  bacilli 
of  tuberculosis  are  present,  but  with  no  discoverable  udder  lesions.” 
Of  course  great  danger  arises  from  improperly  cooked  meat  from 
dise.ased  animals,  but  here  we  hope  Government  inspectors  do  take 
precautions.  Of  private  slaughter  houses  we  still  have  our  doubts. 
Public  abbatoirs  are  the  greatest  safeguard  the  consumers  have.  In 
1894  in  Manchester  seventy-two  entire  carcases  were  condemned; 
1895,  ninety-eight ;  in  1896, 108.  These  were  all  apparently  healthy. 
This  is  what  the  chief  inspector  found — out  of  398  animals, 
111  were  diseased;  of  these  111,  ninety-six  were  cows  and  heifers. 
In  Berlin  it  is  shown  that  12  per  cent,  of  cittle  slaughtered 
publicly  are  diseased;  in  Dresden  14-4;  Upper  Silesia  9-5;  in 
Durham  18-7,  Midlothian  20  per  cent..  New  York  22  per  cent., 
London  25  per  cent.  Now  Koch,  when  he  found  out  so  much  about 
this  disease  also  discovered  a  means  by  which  animals  could  be 
tested  as  to  their  state  of  health.  “Tuberculin  lymjah  is  injected  into 
the  system  of  a  suspected  animal ;  if  the  tubercle  is  present  reaction 
follows,  the  temperature  subsequently  falling.”  Thus  is  the  test 
remedy  explained  by  Professor  Long  to  the  ordinary  layman. 
Of  course  this  test  is  not  infallible,  but  it  is  as  near  perfection  as 
any  human  test  can  be.  The  Danish  Government  and  that  of  some 
parts  of  the  United  States  of  America  have  adopted  preventive 
ineasures.  Any  animals  showing  signs  of  disease  are  done  away  with. 
1  he  calves  are  most  carefully  fed  only  from  healthy  cows,  and  the 
sanitation  of  the  sheds  is  made  a  necessity. 
M  e  are  so  frightened  in  England  of  infringing  on  the  liberty  of 
the  subject  that  we  let  infectious  diseases  reach  such  a  point  as  no 
other  civilised  nation  would  permit.  If,  as  Professor  Wright  of 
Glasgow  states,  the  loss  annually  to  Scotch  farmers  from  tuberculosis 
is  £440,000  per  annum,  we  think  we  have  let  the  thing  go  far  enough. 
Compulsory  slaughter  was  the  only  remedy  for  rinderpest,  and  the 
compensation  was,  we  believe,  something  about  two-thirds  of  the  full 
value.  The  first  outlay  would  be  very  lieavy.  Professor  McFadgean 
estimates  the  first  year  at  £200,000 ;  but  w’e  fancy  even  then  the  gain 
to  our  own  health,  to  say  nothing  of  healthy  stock,  would  be  cheap  at 
the  price. 
Since  writing  the  above  we  met  with  the  following  in  “  Pall 
Mall  Gazette,”  December  8th,  1897  : — 
“  The  medical  officer,  after  pointing  out  in  1896  that  of  all  the 
deaths  that  have  occurred  during  the  last  twelve  years  at  Maidstone 
(between  the  ages  of  fifteen  and  thirty-five),  more  than  37  per  cent, 
were  caused  by  tuberculosis,  goes  on  to  call  attention  to  the  importance 
of  insuring  IMaids  one  against  diseased  milk  and  meat.  ‘  From  a 
personal  inspection  of  all  the  cowsheds  I  find  regulations  are  urgently 
required,’  he  says.  ‘  With  the  exception  of  one  or  two  of  these  sheds 
none  is  in  a  wholesome  condition.  As  a  rule  they  are  overcrowded, 
ill-ventilated,  ill-drained,  and  in  many  cases  ill-adapted  to  the  purposes 
to  which  they  are  put ;  and,  in  the  light  of  the  “  lieport  of  the  Pioyal 
Commission  on  the  Effect  of  Food  Derived  from  Tuberculous  Animals 
on  Human  Health,”  I  am  quite  positive  they  are  calculated  to  excite 
and  foster  the  evil  now  under  consideration.’  ” 
WORK  ON  THE  HOME  FARM. 
We  are  on  the  eve  of  Christmas,  a  season  peculiarly  associated  with 
peace  and  goodwill,  and  this  should  remind  us  not  to  neglect  those  items 
of  farm  work  which  may  perhaps  be  of  more  use  to  our  neighbours  than 
to  ourselves.  Included  in  such  a  category  would  be  the  proper  repair  of 
fences  belonging  to  us,  but  which  during  the  ensuing  season  may  be  only 
useful  to  keep  out  our  neighbours’  cattle,  not  to  keep  in  our  own. 
The  law  only  requires  us  to  provide  a  reasonable  fence,  but  if  the  next 
field  happens  to  be  grass  stocked  with  horses,  and  the  fence  be  a  weak 
one,  the  owner  of  it  is  too  often  inclined  to  fall  back  on  the  judgment  so 
often  given  oflate  in  County  Courts  that  “  Owners  of  stock  are  responsible 
for  the  keeping  of  their  stock  oti  their  neighbours’  land.  If  this  were 
acted  upon  universally,  great  expense  would  have  to  be  incurred  all  round  ; 
in  fact,  there  would  inevitably  be  a  deadlock. 
It  therefore  behoves  us  all  to  do  as  we  would  be  done  by,  for  we 
never  know  when  it  may  be  our  turn  next,  and  to  keep  all  our  fences  in 
good  repair,  whether  for  the  convenience  of  ourselves  or  of  others  ;  for 
we  have  known  many  instances  where  neglect  in  this  respect  has  been 
the  cause  of  rupture  of  the  state  of  peace  and  goodwill  between  neigh¬ 
bours  which  we  should  cultivate  not  only  at  Christmas  but  all  the  year 
round. 
Whilst  finding  time  to  give  proper  attention  to  the  fences  we  must  not 
neglect  the  fields.  Any  roadside  scrapings,  ditch  cleanings,  or  anything 
of  the  nature  of  compost  will  do  good  on  grass  land,  particularly  where 
the  grass  is  inclined  to  grow  rough  and  coarse.  When  carting  such 
material  as  mentioned  above  on  to  grass  we  always  put  it  where  the 
herbage  is  tussocky  and  long.  It  acts  like  magic  ;  the  following  season 
we  find  the  animals  biting,  or  rather  nibbling,  close  to  the  bone,  as  it 
were,  where  previously  autumn  found  a  patch  of  long  coarse  herbage 
which  nothing  would  touch.  It  is  not  the  pasture  which  most  fills  the 
eye  of  the  farmer,  which  is  of  the  greatest  value,  but  that  which  best  fills 
the  stomachs  of  his  animals. 
METEOROLOaiCAL  OBSERVATIONS. 
Camden  Square,  London. 
Lat.  51°  32'  40"  N.;  Long.  0°  8'  0"  W.;  Altitude  111  feet. 
Date. 
9  A.M. 
In  the  Day. 
C 
’5 
X 
1897. 
December. 
Barometer 
at  32°,  and 
Sea  I.evel. 
Hygrometer. 
Direc¬ 
tion  of 
Wind. 
Temp 
of  soil 
at 
1  loot. 
Shade  Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
Sun. 
On 
Grass . 
Inchs, 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
Inchs. 
Sunday  .... 
12 
29-709 
36-8 
36-6 
S.W. 
40-0 
43-1 
32-6 
44-4 
28-0 
0-431 
Monday  .... 
13 
29-663 
42-9 
42-2 
S.E. 
38-6 
53-8 
53-8 
25-6 
0-0  2 
Tuesday  .... 
14 
2r463 
50-2 
48-7 
S. 
42-1 
51-1 
43-1 
66-9 
40-5 
0-112 
Wednesday . . 
15 
-29-57.) 
47-6 
44-6 
S.W. 
42-9 
54-3 
43-8 
63-6 
38-1 
_ 
Thursday. . . . 
16 
29-849 
54-3 
52-6 
S. 
43-1 
56-9 
45-3 
62-6 
35-7 
_ 
F  ridav  ..... 
!7 
30-155 
49-6 
48-3 
S  W. 
44-4 
53-4 
47-3 
62-4 
39-4 
_ 
Saturday  .. 
18 
30  329 
43-1 
43-1 
W. 
43-9 
46-4 
41-7 
51*8 
35-9 
0-016 
29-820 
46-4 
45-1 
42-1 
51-1 
40-4 
57-9 
34' 7 
0-6.61 
12th.— Incessant  rain  from  9  a.m.  to  2.30  p.m,,  clearing  after,  and  brilliant  night. 
13th.  — Pull,  danap,  and  rainy  throughout,  and  mild  in  afternoon. 
14th.  — Mild  and  drirzly  early,  clearing  gradually,  and  bright  sun  from  11.3D  a.n-. ;  fine 
night. 
15th  — Gale  in  small  hours,  with  heavy  showers  and  thunder,  lightning,  and  hail ;  bright 
sunshine  all  day,  but  slight  showers  in  evening. 
Ifith. — S.:)ually  and  damp  early  ;  fair  morning,  sunny  afternoon,  and  clear  night. 
17th — Fine  and  sunny  all  day . 
18th.  — Fog,  thick  till  about  11  a  m.,  and  in  evening  ;  sunny  for  an  hour  or  two  at  midday. 
A  sharp  frost  in  the  early  hours  of  the  13th ;  otherwise  very  mild  for  the  time  ot 
year.— a..  J.  SYMONS. 
