Gloucester County Democrat., 1909-04-15
TUBERCULOSIS.
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ExcretiOn OF the Bacilli.

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Excretion Of the Bacilli.
When an animal or man became in
fected it could only be by bacillus
bred in previous case. The bacillus
left the body of animals by various
channels. One of the commonest was
by means of the air passages--the
commonest of all seats of tubercular
disease in cattle being the lungs.
The great majority of the bacilli
coughed up were swallowed, and one
wished that what was called gastric
juice had the powers of digestion with
regard to tubercle bacilli that many
people thought at one time it had.
When tubercle bacilli were swallowed
they were passed through the stomach
and the great majority were entirely
unaffected, and if there was one point
that was new and of an important
character since he lectured to that
Association before, it was the demon
stration of that particular fact-that
very considerable danger attaches to
the excrement of tuberculous cows
probably good deal more than to
what they project through the nose.
There were other channels not so
common, but exceedingly import
ant. One of these was by no means,
of the milk The only other import
ant channel by which the tubercle bac-
ILL left the body was by the genital
passages, and this danger was not so
fully appreciated by stockowners as
it ought to be.
A discharge from the genital pas
sages- and the discharge in every case
contained immense numbers of tuber
Gle bacilli, which the cow distributed
about the COW shed by means of her
tail and which not infrequently got in
part into the milk pail-ought to con-
vince the farmer that the COW, al
though she might not be suffering
from tuberculosis, ought to be sus-
pected as dangerous.
Infection.
The next point which naturally
presents itself after indicating the
methods of the bacilli leaving the
bodies was how did they enter the
body of healthy animal. The view
of twenty years ago and less was
that the bacillus in many cases passed
from the COW to the unborn calf, and
there are still people who believe that
tuberculosis in that sense was fire.
quently inherited both in human be-
ings and in cattle. That was entirely
erroneous. The inheritance of tuber
culosis in the sense he had indicated
was a perfectly rare occurrence. Both
cattle and human beings come into the
world free from the disease, no matter
if both parents were tuberculous.
Unfortunately every child born of
tuberculous parents, from the moment
if its birth was in an atmosphere of
infection, and the same thing applied
to calves. Thanks to the liking many
people had for veal, thousands of
calves were killed before they were a
week or month old, and if any con-
siderable portion of these calves were
tuberculous one ought to find it in
their lungs sAs a matter of fact the
Investigations conducted had burst up
the theory that tuberculosis was in
herited. When that fact was proved
every reasonable person was bound to
admit that tuberculosis was not born
with the animal, but was contracted
afterwards. Some people. however,
refuse to admit that, and said that al
though one could not find evidence of
disease in young animals it was there
all the same, and that the bacilli were,
so to speak, lying dormant, and would
develop when the animal grew older.
The answer to that was that it was
an assertion devoid of any proof at
all. When one took the bacillus and
put it into a newborn calf, it inn
mediately provoked diseased, and the
calf was dead in about two months.
Except in quite small portion of
cases, calves and human beings came
into the world free from tuberculosis.
1t was very fortunate that the evil
dence justified that conclusion, be-
cause he could not think of anything
more hopeless with regard to the pos
sibility of dealing with the disease
than to have to admit that tuberculous
cattle beget tuberculouS calves.
Prevention.
Unfortunately the question was not
simply how was the owner of a herd
of cattle to prevent tuberculosis but
rather how was he to get rid of it,
because if there was member of the
audience the owner of herd of cows
which he had ascertained to be free
from the disease, he offered him his
hearty congratulations. He was in a
very exceptional and very fortu-
nate position. In case there was a
such fortunate individual present,
he would tell him what he must do
to remain in the same fortunate
position.
He ought on no account to buy from
any outside source COW, or bull, or
any other bovine animal, and admit
it into his stock until he had taken
the most reliable means of ascertain
ing if the animal was free from tuber
culosis; and there was, as far as he
knew, only one reliable way, and that
was to submit it to the tuberculin
test.
But the average problem of the
stock-owner was not how to prevent
tuberculosis, but how to reduce it or