FARM & GARDEN.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 11021, 11 September 1897, Page 3 (Supplement)

FARM & GARDEN.

' BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS. ITS DETECTION AND PREVENTION BY TUBERCULIN. (Continued from last week. ) ALLEGED EEACf ION IN THE CASE OF OTHER AFFECTION. 4. It is also said that certain nontuberculous affections of the lungs and other viscera, will cause reaction from tuberculin in. the same way as tuberculosis. This is an absolute erroi. Neither actinomycosis. nor verminous bronchitis, nor echinococci, (liver fluke, Disloma hepaticum), not to speak of other affections more frequently cited, produce the reaction of tuberculin, when they exist alone; bat it is sufficient to reflect only for an instant to comprehend that the existence of none of these diseases excludes the poisibility of the siinultineoua existence of the tubercular lesion*, which might escape discovery at the autopsy by reason of their small .importance, but might be quite sufficent by themselves to set up reaction. I could give a multiplicity of examples in proof of this, but will only mention one. About two years ago, in the course of a public demonstration which I gave at Chart res, two animals killed at the slaughter house had their lungs full of echinococci. One, the least affected by echincocci, reacted to tuber culm. This was due to the fact that it had tubercnlous lesions of the lungs and various ganglia at the same time that it was stffering from cysts of echinococcis in the liver. The other animal, in which the lungs were almost entirely destroyed by the cysts, had cot given the slightest tuberculin reaction simply because there wat not & trace of tuberculous lesion. ALLEGATION THAT TUBERCULIN IXJURES AND DEPBECIATES THE VALUE OF ANIMALS^ 5. It is alleged further that tuberculin h<!B the serious drawback that it precipitates the evolution of tuberculous lesions and makes the animal very little diseased and capable of rendering services for a long time, useless and of no value.' The aggravation of tuberculous lesions under the influence of tuberculin is said sometimes to occur amongst men" ; it is quite exceptional amongst cattle. I have seen but three instances in more than 3, 500 injections of tuberculin that I have personally made; on the other hand, when such a condition is produced, it is only in those animals which have entered on the last stages of the disease, and are consequently of no real value. Moreover, in many impotant experiments where I have applied tuberculin during te blast two or three years I have repeated the injections at intervals of six months and of three mouths, and the proprietors, managers, or cow-herds have not observed the least falling off in condition — the least accident which could be attributed to the injections in the animals found to be tuberculous at the first trial. I will only repeat that the injection of tuberculin is absolutely without danger. TUBEBCULI.V AND MILK. 6. Tuberculin, it is alleged, provokes the passage of bacilli into the milk, with the result that milch cows very little affected with tuberculosis become valueless after the injection. I affirm strongly tbat this is absolutely untrue, and I have good grounds for doing so, because I have long studied this important side of the question. I have at my laboratory milch cows affected with tuberculosis, which have served, from their entrance to the etsablishment, to indicate the activity of various samples of tuberculin prepared at the Pasteur Institute. Some .of these cows have received ten, fifteen, twenty cr more inI jeetions of tuberculin in less than a year; their milk, which was non-virulent before the experiments, has not become virulent since. Last year I systematically injected tuberculin onca a week during two months into a milch cow bolonging to me, which has tuberculous to a very advanced i degree. Each week I also injected some ; of the milk into the peritoneal cavity of 1 four guinea pigs, 10 c.c. into each. Not ' oae of the thirty-two guinea pigs on | which I experimented in this way has 1 become tuberculous. • FIRST AND SUBSEQUENT TESTS. J 7. Lastly, it is said that the first in- ' jection of tuberculin prevents tuberculous ; cows reacting upon a second injection, j It is true that if an injection is repeated 1 after onlyafew days interval, many tubeiculous cows will not show reaction ; but j this acquired indifference to tuberculin is I very transient. After a monch it is ex-

* This is not by any means the rule. lam assured by my friend, Dr. Ilitne, of Bradford, who has had great experience _in the use of tuberculin with human patients, that he has administered; in the course of a year, over 500 injections of tuberculin, gradually increasing to a great strength, toa patient badly affected with consumption of both lungs, without any drawback whatever, and with great benefit,

ceptional for tubuerculous animals not to show a reaction after a fresh injection. That inch a result sometimes occurs I will not deny. But I affirm that it is rare, and does not occur in more than 5 per cenfr-of the cases. Further, it occurs only in animals which are very Blightly affected and are suffering from lesions of a trifling character, and which are already encysted, and have lost virulence ; lesions which altogether are of but little consaquence so far as any danger of.contagion is concerned. Reduced to these proportions, the exactitude of which I maintain, it mast be seen that the alleged objections lose much of their importance.

The proceeding remarks will convince any unprejudiced person that the objec tions put forward against the employment of tuberculin cannot withstand discussion on aa impartial study of the facts. THE CURE OF TUBERCULOSIS. The diagnostic power of tuberculin having thus been established, the establishment of a rational method of dealing with bovine tuberculosis becomes an easy matter. Indeed, there is nothing more simple, more sine, anl less onoroue; In all cases where a definite diagnosis is required, and where the existence of . the disease is feared, all the animals should be submitted to an injection of tuberculin. All those animals which react should be rigorously isolated from those which are healthy, and the stablea be thoroughly disinfected. None of the animals should be sent for sale, except to the butcher. No one should knowingly expose a buyer to the danger of infecting his stable by the introduction of a tuberculous animal. But the owner is not obliged to sacrifice the animal at once. He can still make it work, or utilise its milk after it has been established by a very rigorous examination that the udder is hod thy; but, if thera is any doubt whatever as to the absolute healthiness of the udder, the milk should be boiled before it is consumed either by man or animal. The animals may also be reserved for breeding, on the sole condition that the calve 3be separated from the tuberculous mothers immediately after birth, and that they are brought up by hand on warm milk. When the animals have arrived at an agj when they must be changed, or prepared for the slaughterhouse, they should 1 be fattened as quickly as possible. HERDS MADE TREE FROM INFECTION. It is clear that such precautions enca adopted are sufficient to maintain the herd free from a new infection ; for that it is only necessary that no new animal bo introduced without its having been submitted to the tuberculin test.f Thi3 precaution is necessary because some unscrupulous owner*, instead of preparing for slaughter those of their animals which tuberculin has proved to be tuberculous, find it much easier to take them to the market without troubling themselves about the damage which they may inflict on their new owners. To overcome this danger it is sufficient to adopt the precautions described above. Thanks to these simple means, the English breeders can, whenever they desire it, easily, rapidly, and with little expense free themselves from the heavy tribute which they are paying every year to tuberculosis. On the other hind, foreign breeders who go to England to purchase bulls, will have no fear that along with the English bulls they will be importing into their stables the germs of this redonbtable malady.

la South Gippsland most dairy herds had last season an average of 201bs of milk to lib of butter, and during June 18lb of. milk was the common run, with here and there as low as 161bs. A farmer who was afficted with a lisp one sale day invested in a few pigs, and called upon a neighbor who he knew had an empty sty. p " I thay, old man," he began, " Tliave ]utht bought thum pigth. Could you lend me your thty?" "Certainly ; how many have you got?' " Two thowth and pigth." " Two thousand pigs! Good gracious! I've only got a sty; I don't run a stock market." " But I don't mean two thowthand pigth, only two thowth and two pigth." Then the matter was arranged.

Fonr miles of a spider's thread would only weigh one grain . It is estimated that on 8 crow will destroy 700,000 insects in one year. The Belgians are the greatest potato eaters, and the Irish come next. Down to the ltith century every physician in Europe wore a ring as a badge of his profession. Wholemeal bread should be eaten much more than it is— white bread contains very little nourishment. A certain Chinese seek teaches that women who wear short hair will be transformed into men in the great hereafter. " We are tborry to thay," explains the editor of the Skcdunk Weekly News at the head of the first column of his editorial page, " that our conipothing room wath entered latht night bythome thcoundrel wh» thole every 'eth' \u the ethtablithment from thith fount, and thucceeded in making hith etheape undetected. It hath been impothible, of courthe, to procure a new thupply of etheth in time for thith ithne, and we are thuth compelled ! o go to preth in a thituathn raotht embarrathing and dithrething; but, can thee be no other courthe to putthue than to make the betht thtagger we can to get along withont the mithing letter, and we therefore print the Newth on time regardleth of the loth we have thuthtained.'' Why didn't he use a few z's by way of a changt?