St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1894-05-03
TUBERCULOSIS.
A Word From DR.. Ward-AIso a Quota
ton from Prof. Law.

! A Word From DIR. Ward-AiSO Quota
ton from Prof Law.
DR.. Geo. w. Ward of this place, in
response to certain inquiries, says
that his method in dealing with ami
mails he is called to examine is to
apply the German tuberculin test.
| When an animal is found to be III
normal condition and its history
does not suggest any previous con-
nection with diseased herds, a
certificate is given, setting forth the
fact that the animal has been ex-
amined and is thought to be IN
healthy state. If the case is doubt
ful, no certificate is given until the
scientific test has been applied. All
certificates are numbered. and all
animals found to be healthy are
registered, thus obviating any
trouble from imposition by unscru-
pulous individuals.
Concerning the tuberculin test and
the necessity for its application,
Prof. lanes Law of Cornell Univers-
ity, recognized authority, says:
\ professional examination of the
most searching kind must be supplement-
ed by the tuberculin test before a clean
bill of health can be furnished. In my
own experience on cattle two-th1rds OF
the cases of tuberculosis sometimes
escaped under the most critical profess
later by the tuberculin test. Often when
cattle were condemned by the 'tuber-
culin'' test, have the owners pronounced
them the most thrifty and the least
suspected in the herd, and it was only
after death, when the animals were
opened and the caseated tubercle ex-
posed, that they were satisfied that no
mistake had been made. Recently in a
herd kept for the supply of high-priced
milk and of guaranteed sOundness, the
stock having been subjected to weekly
examinations by a veterinarian, the
''tuberculin'' test was applied and fifty
per cent of the herd demonstrated to be
tuberculous. Without the 'tuberculin"
test there is no guarantee possible for
the products of the dairy, and the
sanitary officers who will affect to deal
with this disease in herds without the
aid of "tuberculin" are at best but
pruning the tips of the branches of the
evil tree. Public money ought not to be
thrown away on such frultleSS and unef-
fective work.
The publication of a herd must be
followed in every case by a thorough
distinction of contaminated buildings
and places and by careful seclusion from
new SOURCES Of infection. 1t is evident,
therefore, that the non-tuberculous herd
no he of
fresh animals from any herd that has
not been similarly attested sound, and
that any necessary addition from an
other source must be tested by 'tuber
culin'' before it is added to the herd.
Equally important is it to test all farm
animals of whatever species, that live on
the place and cohabit with the herd, and
to see to it that no human being suffer
ing from tuberculosis is allowed to at
tend to the animals or to prepare their
food. 1t is difficult to see how anything
short of such a system can afford any
guarantee of the absence of the soluble
tubercle poisons from our milk, butter
and cheese.
AS to the economy" involved in
the neglect of wise measures in this
connection, Prof. Law says:
The economist will object to drastic
measures for the suppression of tuber
culosis on the ground of expense. Who
is to pay for the municipal abattoirs,
the pectorships, the distinctions and
the indemnities for slaughtered animals
In return let US ask who now pays for
the constant losses Of live stock which
the proposed system would put stop
to; for the frequent infection of sound
herds by unfortunate purchases OF an
imals that prove to be tuberculous; for
the losses to the nation, the community
and the family Of the tuberculous, one
eighth of all deaths; for the loss of work,
literary, scientific, manufacturing, COM
mercial, domestic and manual, of the
great host of consumptives waiting all
over the land to fill the places of this
fatal eighth in coming mortality
statistics; for the losses represented by
the bills of the physician, nurse and
druggist for these invalids, and for the
losses represented by the many migra-
tons and exiles in search of health, and
of the costly consumption hospitals and
sanitaria? And who is to pay in the
future for the endless harvest of similar
fruits which the seeds, now sown
through our supineness, must inevitably
produce in the coming generations?