State control of tuberculosis.

  • Charles V. Chapin
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: State control of tuberculosis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    To tiiljerculosis acquired iiatiinilly. the bovine species appears to be more susceptible than are other animals. Next in susceptibility among the domestic animals are swine. Goats and fowls also contract it, and sheep sometimes have it. It is very readilv inoculated into rabbits and guinea pigs. Parrots and canaries have been known to have it, but it is very difficult to pro- duce it in sparrows. The carnivorous animals are very slightly susceptible, though wild animals kept in con- finement, as lions and tigers, occasionally contract it. As a rule mammalia are more susceptible than the other vertebrate classes. Birds come next, and it has only recently been discovered that fishes sometimes have this disease. Even in the Ijovine species, tuber- culosis is not uniiormh^ distributed. The statistics of the Leipsig slaughter-house for 1895 showed that of oxen 28.14 per cent, had tuberculosis ; of heifers, 20.35 per cent.; of cows, 43.51; of ])ulls, 23.83, and of calves, 0.18. It would be of very great interest to know just how ex- tensively tuberculosis prevails among the herds of this and other civilized countries, but we have no accurate statistics, at least, for this country. It is probably much more common in certain parts of Europe than it is in any part of tbe United States. It is said that 27 per cent, of all animals slaughtered in Saxony have tuberculosis. No such figures have been obtained in this country, though, in Philadelphia, it is said that a year or two ago 20 per cent, of the slaughtered animals were infected. In the New York slaughter-houses, 7 per cent, have been found infected, and, at the Brighton abattoir, 5 per cent, of Eastern cattle. In Massachusetts, wdiere the tuberculin test is required