Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1893-09-07
ro rrenr runEnouLoSrs.
Value of Koch's system of Determinin
Its Existence The Necessity 70

Its Existence The Necessity for |
Thorough and Stringent Laws.
Editor Gazette and Journal: In EVERY |
EVENING of yesterday there appears |
several news items regarding the now |
prevalent cattle disease, anthrax, which |
are correct, but those relating TO tuber.
culosis are wrong. Mention Is made of
the slaughter Of herd Of 10 COWS which
were afflicted with tuberculosis.
was the veterinarian in charge of
.he examination Of those cattle, and
although all the COWS belonging to the
herd have been tested according TO
Koch's method with tuberculine, none
have as yet been killed.
This latter disease, tuberculosis, has
been mentioned as again making its APP
pearance in New Castle county.
Allow mo to inform your readers that
! this dreaded human scourge has just AS
| great hold on tie brute creation as it
has on man, and that wherever the pro.
ducts of the COW are used for food there
also will be found human consumption.
The two diseases are identical and
almost as ancient as man himself,
II never makes its appearance sud-
denly, as has often been said in news
paper reports, but by slow and almost inn
perceptible changes it gradually affects
a herd, generally by the Introduction of
one or more new cows.
Almost three years have now passed
since the immortal German scientist,
Koch, gave to the medical world the
results of his labor in working with
tuberculosis. A few months following,
the veterinary Department. of the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania, organized a tuher-
culosis commission for the purpose of
testing Koch's lymph, or tuberculine
on cattle. The hope that it would cure
the malady has been abandoned, yet, it
has an untold value as an agent to
J prove the existence of the disease,
especially in cattle.
Veterinarians have adopted it as a
means of diagnosis, and several large
Jersey, Guernsey and Holstein cattle
breeders will not import fresh blood into
: their herds unless tested for tuberculosis
by competent veterinarian.
This is great step forward Next
t we need legal authority from city, State
and national government. Why this
! should be lacking seems strange, when
} we look back into ancient history and
3 find the laws of Moses forbid the use Of
9 tuberculosis animals as food, and it is
also prescribed by the Talmud and the
Semara (year 500 A. d..
a Church laws were made in Europe in
+ the ninth century and these were made
:. more stringent in 1870, 1401 and 1868.
c In the last century Germany imposed
e severe penalties for disregarding the
laws on tuberculosis.
:. But now, even in this progressiv
0 nineteenth century, with all the evils o
d a crowded population, coupled with tn
g immense and vast herds of INBRED AM
. often tubereulous cattle, strict, stringen
laws are unheard of except by thei
e death in the lobby rooms Of State Legis
e latures.
d Science has pointed the way an
e equipped her disciples to fight the battl
and yet none but a few men emplo
70 her. Their efforts are but drop in fill
:, ing bucket.
IL As long as the health of the people
n unprotected by laws providing for pun
ID and wholesome meat food, just SO lon
will the death rate remain at that star
4 ling figure, seven in every ten deatf
os from consumption alone.
m A herd recently tested showed that
per cent were affected, and in that her
th calf six weeks old, born of col
% suhpblN6 hObntTp was lOuuu W
he affected. This is rare, as young cattl
d. if predisposed, do not generally develc
be the disease until they reach the age
lg one or two years.
to Another herd tested last winter Co
n tanned six out of nine, or 66 per ce
ng affected.
These herds were both losing the
in members at fast and improbable raj
I'D and the owners would say that the q
feted ones "would stand about listless
no and pine away until they died"
OF 1t should not be taken from the abo
i'd, examples that every farmers herd is
les like manner afflicted.
to- Many herds are free from the diseal
ore just as in the human family certain
1g- dlviduals possess resisting power
on the attacks of tuberculosis.
to ID. E. BUCKINGHAM,
Veterinarian
a WILMINGTON, September 9th, 1888