St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1888-02-18
TuBERCuLOUS GERMS.
The Nature OF One of the Most Disastrous
Diseases of Cattle.

TUBERCUlOUS 0ERMS.
The Nature OF One of the Most Disastrous
Diseases of Cattle.
Farmers as well as veterinarians
should understand the nature of this
contagion. Too few are aware OF its
spread and only an occasional animal
is lost financially. Diseased animals
are nearly always sold to the butcher.
The flesh of cattle suffering from many
maIadies may be eaten with impunity
and yet the flesh of some (oftentimes
apparently welD may prove fatal to
man. The diseases which render ami
NAL food perilous to man are few, but
among them are anthrax. tuberculosis,
trichina and hydrophobi-~ Even q
diseased article may not prove injurious
to healthy stomach if well cooked.
In tuberculosis. deposits upon the
pleura membrane lining the chest
cavity, thus causing the lungs to adj
here to the ribs. or along the internal
walls of the abdomen, are sufficient
evidence to condemn the carcass.
Mr.. Rupert Kolt, of Germany, dis
covered the long-sought-for germ of
this dread disease in 1882, and he has
not only solved the mystery but enabled
us to identify this especial bacillus In
all forms of tubercular affections. DR..
Morgagni, a celebrated Italian physi-
clan, more than q century ago claimed
that 'virulent matter in the expired air
of consumptive patient was very in
fectious and liable to transmit the
malady. This theory, long believed,
has now been proved true by DR.. Tai
fener. Ee has satisfied even the doubt
ing members of the profession by caus-
ing animals to Inhale the particles of
tubercular matter which had been evap-
GRATED in room by steam atomizer.
About ninety per cent. of the puppies
thus confined from twenty-five to forty
days showed well marked symptoms
of tuberculosis in both lungs. These
experiments have also demonstrated
that the disease can be artificially
propagated.
tuberculosis can be conveyed by in
oculation and the virus is believed not
to lose its vitality by long drying in a
stable. Thus it appears that man can
be vaccinated while skinning an ami
NAL or making a post norton examin-
alton, or that an animal can take the
disease by licking the manger i'll which
consumptive cow has fed, for the di-
gestive organs are quite as susceptible
of contagion as any. The fact that
animals can contract the disease
through the agency of the food should
give us new apprehensions.
Both the meat and milk may contain
the deatli-dealing germs Tuberculo-
sis does not necessarily imply a disease
of the lungs. The glands of the nd
der, of generation and of the liver are
as liable to consumption. The germ
should be termed bacillus tuberculosis
to distinguish it from other germs of
the same family. 1t is of vegetable
origin. of the fungi order.
A COW only affected in the lungs,
slightly, is not to be feared, but affec-
tons of the udder are very apt to pass
the disease TO those using the milk.
Scrofula often results from tubercu-
losis. Prot. Bollinger, of Munich, says |
that boiling the milk will not always
render it safe. but that long and re-
peated boiling is necessary to kin the
spores, or q second boiling shortly |
after the first. A spore is germ with
in germ. Many of these are found in
the sputa of q human consumptive pa
tient. and tbs hard to cleans the house.
clothes, bedding and wallpaper where
one has lived.
All infectious diseases have q con-
tinuous existence like the succession |
Of organized beings; the succession ex-
lists from diffusion of these living
germs, and each as surely produces its
kind as the acorn the oak.-Dr. Noah |
Cressy, III Farm and Home.