Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1911-07-28
Illinois Downs Tuberculin Test.
From the New York Herald.

IOtu thC lNCW IOfh IlCTdlO.
Through its General Assembly the State
of Illinois has placed itself on record
against the tuberculin test of COWS as
reasonable means of protecting the public
in its milk supply. Both the Senate and
House have passed the anti-tuberculin test
bill and the measure has gone to the Gov
ernor
No snap judgment was taken in the
passage of this act The attitude taken
by the Legislature was based on the recon-
mendations made by special commission
appointed during the session of 1909.
Early in the year this commission made
report condemning the tuberculin test as
unjust to the owners of COWS and as I'M
reliable in the conclusions based on its
use. In the judgment of experts the in
vestigatiOn was thorough and the report
complete and conclusive.
In committee rooms and on the floors of
the two houses the subject was fully dis
cussed. Both the friends and foes of the
tuberculin test had an opportunity to air
their views. The bill was passed without
| hint OF undue influence and went to the
Governor as a piece Of clean legislation.
The new law prohibits City Councils from
enforcing the tuberculin test upon dairy
herds from which the milk supply comes.
1t does not prevent the application of the
test by the State veterinarian or in any way
change the power Of the State Board of
Live Stock Commissioners to inspect cat
tie for infectious or contagious diseases.
Neither does it prevent the testing of milk
supplies by cities.
Of the arguments pressed against the
tuberculin test two of the leading ones
were the fallibility of the test itself and
the impracticability of trying to enforce it.
Edward Shurtluff, Speaker of the Assem-
bly, Of 1903. said If the State undertook to
give the tuberculin test to all cows of the
State il would have to pay $6,000,000 to
$6,OOO,OOO for the animals slaughtered
after they had reacted" to test Of which
there is no satisfactory evidence to prove
its reliability. The farmers and milk pro-
ducers of Illinois, he said, had excellent
reasons for skepticism regarding the tuber-
culin test.
DIR. W. A. Evans, Chicago's Commissioner
of Health, who favors the tuberculin test,
had laid his plans to apply the test to
$4,000 cows in the district whence comes
the city's supply of milk. The new law
put these plans awry. Thus far the Leg
islature has taken the position that the
pasteurization of milk is a question with
which local authorities may be left to deal
1.-THE report of the Illinois Legislative
Commission and the investigation which
preceded II were as thorough as they could
be made" said j. P. Grier, secretary of the
Milk Producers Association. THE COM
mercialized tuberculin test as now applied
is neither fair nor reliable. To illustrate
experts tested the herd of Mrs. Scott Du-
rand, of Lake Bluff, whose dairy was famed
far and wide for its hygienic and sanitary
features. Sixteen out of the sixty cows
tested were condemned. Later these same
cows were examined at the stock yards in
Chicago and there they were found to be
perfectly healthy.
From rs to 40 per cent. of the cows in
a given herd will react and be condemned
on that showing when as a matter of fact
they may have no infection at all. In
most cases the cows are permanently in
jured by the incubation"
II was pointed out in the commission's
interesting report that while the percentage
of deaths from tuberculosis among children
under five years Of age in Chicago that
could possibly be attributed to bovine in
lection is inappreciable, similar deaths in
the country where much more milk is con-
sumed are considerably fewer.
The committee from the testimony found
that tuberculosis is especially prevalent in
Japan and in COrea, where cows milk is
not an article of food. The disease is also
prevalent among the Indians, who do not
use milk as food
DR.. Vanderslce. of the Milk Commission
of the County Medical Society in Chicago
expressed the belief that the danger to
human beings from being infected with
tuberculosis through milk was greatly over
estimated.
THE records show" reads the report Of
the joint committee, that Illinois has
l,OOO.232 cows, Of valuation of around
$5O,O0O.OOO; that the establishment Of
the tuberculin test among these herds fol
the purpose of eradicating the disease OF
tuberculosis would largely destroy the herds
during the seven years required to clean
up the herds, if it were possible to do so
involving a property loss TO the State Of
fully $50.000.000.
'Conservatively estimated. if the reports
of DR.. Rylands, Of Minnesota, are anywhere
near accurate, there are not at the present
time dairy cattle in existancs that could
be gotten to fill their places. and the herds
could not in that number of years be com.
pleted from themselves.
TO establish the mandatory tuberculir
tCot dhlOilB HuiHUcT VI WOulC
be ruinous. not only to the farmers and
the dairy men who own the herds, but il
would bankrupt the State of Illinois if the
State should attempt to pay any consider.
able portion of the expense of the losses
of disinfection and of testing that would
be required to carry out this program
Some suggest obtaining the tuberculir
from the government, while the evidence
shows that all the tuberculin furnished by
the United States government has not gone
: above $4,000 injections a year, and il
would require plants to manufacture this
article if the plans were carried out which
would rival the Standard Oil Company, and
we should be required to grow and cult.
waite the human tubercle bacillus with
which to manufacture tuberculin.
1T may be that bovine tuberculosis passes
through the milk from the COW to the con.
sumner. There are some who insist that if
by any probability. among ten Thousand
cases even one can be traced to the infec-
tion through milk then the entire cattle
kind should be condemned until they car
prove their innocence. AS well might one
by the wave Of the hand order Lake Mich
gan to give up and destroy any germs Of
disease that may come through its waters
to the consuming public"