The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-11-20
DISEASES FROM BUTCHERS, MEAT.
The Prevalence of TubercIe in Cattle-HOw
1T Is Transmitted.

No more important contribution has
been made to science in recent years than
that embodied in a report by DR.. Koch,
the government adviser in the imperial
health department of Berlin. in March,
1882, on the "Etiology of Tubercular
Disease, and the Life-Hlstory OF the
Tubercle-Bacilus." Long before his in
vestigations, the communicability of this
the most deadly of all the maladies which
affiict humanity had been placed beyond
doubt; but it was reserved for him to dem
onstrate the precise character of the conta-
GUM, and to discover by microscopic ex-
animation OF diseased organs OF men and
animals the existence of the minute
parasitic organism dwelling in the
center of the tubercle-cell. Trans
ferring the tuberculous matter from
Affected to healthy animals he in
variably reproduced the disease; and
by artificial cultivation of the bacillus
through many generations Ito insure its
purity and eliminate any other virus, and
its subsequent introduction into the circu-
latlOn OF healthy animals, resulting in
every case in the reproduction of the par
aslte and Temperance OF the tuberculous
condition, he proved beyond the possible
ity OF doubt that it was the bacillus solely.
bedded IN the diseased organs, that was
the ions ct OrigO mali. KOCh's expert
ments, repeatedly verified by phi PSYCHOLOGISTS
in all countries, have laid the foundations
Oh much more intelligent and practical
pathology of tuberculosis, and have opened
up questions of immense Importance to all
IN their bearing upon public health. The
prevalence of tubercle in cattle is remark
able, and its danger is intensified by the
tact that 1t is frequently incapable of being
recognized during lifetime, and isrevealed
only by post-mortem examination of the
organs implicated. Such flesh is freely
exposed for sale in this and almost every
other country. Tuberculous cattle are
known in. the trade as "mincers" and
MASTERS" and In the most marked stage
OF the disease are sold in quarters Of towns
where inspection is escaped and DIR. Car
penter states that an inspector in the Met
ropolitan meat market declared upon oath
that so per cent. of the meat sent to the
London market had tubercular disease. A
similar condition of affairs exists on the
continent DIR. Richter stated recently, at
meeting of the Berlin medical society,
that the prevalence of tuberculosis in cat
tie Is much greater than most people sus-
pect, and that he had been informed BY
veterinary surgeons that, in some localities
in Germany, as many as so per cent. are
affected; that the animals may show no
signs OF the disease during life. and no
means of accurately diagnosing it are at
present known and that, consequently, its
presence is often only revealed by exam
lnation alter death. In Denmark its ex-
treme frequency has been repeatedly dem
onstrated, yet we import cattle thence into
&l.1s- = I L
OF G5,O00,000. At the congress on
tuberculosis held in Paris in July, 1888,
special attention was directed to the sub
ject. Many leading medical authorities
dilated on the grave yet unsupported dan
ger to the public.
That the New world fares no better than
the Oldin this respect is shown by the re-
port on the prevention of tuberculosis
made to the board of health of the city of
New York by the pathologists of the health
department, who affirm that at is a dis
tinctly prevalent disease :" that it may be,
and is, transmitted by the milk and flesh
OF affected animals; land that those meas
pres of precaution alone answer the re-
quirements which embrace the govern
mental inspection of dairy COWS and Of
animals slaughtered for food, and the
destruction of all those found to be tuber-
culOus. And at the recent international
medical congress held at Melbourne, Dr.
MacLaurin, the president of the New South
Wales board OF health, gave some noticea-
BILE figures tending to support the conclu-
sion that the use of meat from tuberculous
cattle constitute very real source of dan
ger, and is the cause Of much of the great
mortality from phthisic in the colony.
The next link in the chain of evidence is
as to the identity of human and bovine
tuberculosis, which was for long undeter-
mined, but has now been definitely
solved in the affirmative. An
elaborate essay by DIR. Creighton
on Bovine tuberculosis in Man" has al
forded convincing proof, not only OF this,
but also of it's communicating from the
one to the other. And DR.. Parkes, assist
ant to the professor Of hygiene in Univer-
sity college, London, has shown ''that the
bacilli of bovine tuberculosis are identical
according to all psychological methods
at present known-with those found in
tubercular formations in the organs of
man." In the statement previously quoted,
DR.. Richter affirms that there can no longer
be any doubt as to the identity of the two f;
and NJ. Chauveau, the president of the
Paris congress on tuberculosis in 1883, re-
ported that the experiments carried out in
the veterinary school of Lyons to deter
mine the point have fully established their
absolute identity. In two lectures de-
voted to the consideration OF the subject,
DIR. Woodhead, superintendent of the
laboratory of the Edinburgh Royal college
of physicians, gave it as the result of his
observations that the bacillus of tubercle
in men and the lower animals was identi-
cal, and that this point may now be re-
garded as finally settled. Evidence as to
the communicating of tuberculosis TO
man from the flesh of affected cattle has
been freely forthcoming since my earlier
papers; the subject is engaging the atten-
ton of Psychologists in almost every coun-
try, and the results Of their investigations
yield abundant testimony to the develop
Inent of the maladyGor the predisposition
to it-from this sol ce. DR.. Woodhead
expressed his concurrence in the view that
the flesh and milk of affected animals con-
vey the bacillus, and that its effects would
depend entirely upon the resisting power
of the tissues and the general health of the
individual; in weakly persons, especially
in children with their imperfect nutritive
power, the tissues are apt to give way on
the slightest stimulation, and if their
vitality be low, the introduction of even a
small number of bacilli suffices to produce
scrofulous degeneration of the glands, upon
which well-marked tuberculosis may
ensue.