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 I VI 
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 THE PREVENTION OF CONSUMPTION. 
 
 CONSUMPTION IS SPREAD, BY MEANS OF SPUTA, FROM MAN TO 
 COWS; AND, BY MILK, FROM COWS TO MAN. 
 
 DISCUSSION FOLLOWING A PAPER ON ANIMALS’ DISEASES DAN- 
 GEROUS TO MAN, AT THE SANITARY CONVENTION 
 HELD AT STANTON, IN APRIL, 1893. 
 
 f Reprinted from the proceedings of the Stanton Sanitary Convention, published as a supplement to the 
 Annual Report of the Michigan State Board of Health for the year 1893.] 
 
 [ Reprint No. 378.] 
 
 Dr. Baker , Lansing: I wish to speak on the same subject as the 
 
 gentleman who preceded me. The topic was broached by the reader of 
 the paper, Mrs. Hinds. It seems to me that this is an exceedingly import- 
 ant point — the prevention of tuberculosis. Mrs. Hinds has said that the 
 commission acts upon these dangerous communicable diseases when they 
 are reported to the commission. There seems to be no provision in the 
 law for an inspection of the animals around the State. If there were, I 
 
73 
 
 DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS, ETC. 
 
 imagine we should find the number of. animals infected with tuberculosis 
 would be very much in excess, perhaps, of all the other diseases put 
 together. It seems to me that in this line of work we have done just what 
 is usually done, we have commenced to work at the least important end. 
 I want to suggest that it ought to be so that the Live Stock Sanitary Com- 
 mission should be able to tell us what proportion of cows in this State 
 supplying milk are afflicted with tuberculosis. And the importance of the 
 question can be understood when we know that tuberculosis is the disease 
 of all others that kills people here in Michigan. If you look at that diagram 
 £ on the wall] you will see that we lose 3,000 people in this State every year 
 from consumption. Some of those who die of consumption contract the 
 disease in other ways than by infected milk or meat, many are infected 
 with the dust of the dried sputa that arises from the carpets and floors of 
 halls like this, and other public places. But in the State of Massachusetts 
 they have demonstrated the important fact that the milk of a tuberculous 
 cow will convey tuberculosis even when the udder of the cow is not 
 affected. And in Massachusetts the proportion of cows afflicted with 
 tuberculosis is about four per cent — about four animals out of one hundred 
 have this disease. I do not know whether there is any one in Stanton who 
 keeps fifty cows, but if there is and the same proportion holds good here, 
 two cows in that dairy give tuberculous milk, and that milk goes in with 
 the milk of the other cows, and the whole mass of it is distributed around, 
 all possibly being capable of communicating tuberculosis. It seems to me 
 that it is an important thing to have this Live Stock Sanitary Commission ; 
 but I should say, give it the other blade of the scissors. It is now work- 
 ing under a very great disadvantage. There should be an inspector going . 
 around the State to find these animals, and the Live Stock Commission 
 should have knowledge of these cows. The reason why nothing is being 
 done to stamp out consumption is because but very few cases are reported to 
 the commission. I happen to know that the State of Michigan has lost 
 quite a number of cows in that way — destroyed by advice of the State 
 Veterinarian. I may be telling tales out of school, I do not think Mrs. 
 Hinds said anything about it. 
 
 Mrs. Hinds: Oh, no, you are not; go on. 
 
 Dr. Baker: One more point, we have discussed the subject of “animals’ 
 
 diseases communicable to man,” I want to say a word about “ dangerous 
 diseases of man communicable to animals,” and the chief disease in this 
 class is this same disease, consumption. On the extreme left (referring to 
 diagram) we see the bacillus of tuberculosis, fig. 1, page 26. I think it is 
 a good thing to have this image of the germ of this disease clearly in 
 mind. The germ of this disease is vegetable. It is reproduced in the 
 lungs of any one who has consumption. It is spit out around in the back 
 yard, and chickens eat it, and die with consumption. This fact has been 
 demonstrated. The consumptive goes and takes care of the cows in the 
 dairy, spits on the hay, feeds it to the animals, some of the animals contract 
 the disease. If there were an inspector who went around and found every 
 consumptive animal, and the Live Stock Commission destroyed every one 
 of them today, how long would it last? Three thousand consumptive 
 people in this State today are spitting all over the State. It is a vicious 
 circle. We must cut the circle in two or three places before it is destroyed. 
 You must not only destroy the consumptive animals, but we must teach 
 the people not to infect the animals. 
 
 Dr. Gamber, Stanton: There is a good deal that might be said in 
 
74 
 
 STANTON SANITARY CONVENTION, APRIL, 1893. 
 
 regard to this subject, but I wish to say a word in regard to tuberculosis. 
 The bacilli which are the cause of this disease when taken into the stomach 
 are destroyed by the healthy gastric juice in eighteen to thirty-six hours, 
 but not soon enough every time to prevent them from sometimes infecting 
 the system. I do not see any other way than to destroy the tuberculous 
 animal, and not allow these germs to get into the stomach, or where they 
 may be inhaled by the human system. 
 
 In regard to glanders, provision is made for the destruction of these 
 animals. After they are killed they should be cremated or buried very 
 deeply, but cremation is far preferable. 
 
 Another disease, anthrax, sometimes called malignant pustule, (see illus- 
 tration of bacillus of anthrax, figure 11, page 27), which I think does not 
 trouble the Live Stock Commission now, as Mrs. Hinds tells us that there 
 are no cases in the State at the present time. In San Domingo, in 1770, 
 15,000 persons perished in six weeks from eating the bodies of animals 
 dead of this disease. The bacillus of anthrax is famous as the first micro- 
 organism demonstrated as the actual cause of an infectious disease. It is 
 the longest known and best studied of all the micro-organisms. This 
 bacillus containes spores, and the gastric juice does not destroy them at 
 all; consequently when they are taken into the stomach, infection is 
 infallable. 
 
 Mr. C.T. Wicks , Stanton: What is the effect of cooking the meat 
 that is diseased in this way? 
 
 Dr. Gamber, Stanton : Thorough cooking of the meat of the animal 
 dead of this disease is a sure preventive. It requires the boiling point, 
 and if the piece of meat is large it requires thorough cooking so that it 
 becomes heated entirely through, while the meat of tuberculous cattle 
 requires a temperature of one hundred and sixty degrees F. to destroy the 
 germs. 
 
 Mr. C. T. Wicks: Would it also destroy germs in milk? 
 
 Dr. Gamber: Yes. 
 
 Rev. W. C . Burns, Stanton: Would you recommend boiling the milk? 
 
 Dr. Gamber: Yes, unless you are very certain that it contains none of 
 these germs. All of these germs that we have been talking about are 
 destroyed by thorough boiling. 
 
 One more disease I wish to mention is rabies, or, in the human species, 
 hydrophobia. There are a few points it ig well to understand in regard to 
 this disease. The period of incubation after a dog or person is bitten by 
 a rabid animal is on the average from 30 to 50 days, and sometimes it may 
 be from 6 to 240 days, so that we do not know exactly what the time will 
 be in any given instance. This fact should be borne in mind when any 
 person is bitten by one of these rabid animals, for during the time that 
 might transpire before the breaking out of the disease the wound may 
 entirely heal up, and later break out again. We also know that when a 
 man has this disease he is afraid of water, it is entirely different with dogs, 
 they like it. 
 
 In countries where they have had the disease among the people they 
 have stamped it out entirely by muzzling the dogs. 
 
 Rev. H. E. W. Palmer, Stanton: What about the Frenchman’s cure 
 i of this disease? 
 
 Dr. Gamber: It is recognized as being one of the best at the present 
 v day. It is thought that something better has been discoverd by an old 
 
75 
 
 3 0112 059076098 
 
 DISEASES OF MAN AND DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 
 
 Italian physician, Eusebio Valli, but they have not yet tried it upon man. 
 The Frenchman you have reference to is M. Pasteur. He has labored for 
 years and has not yet been able to discover the germ that causes this dis- 
 ease. It is thought that this poison does not enter the blood, but extends 
 along the course of the nerves until it gets to the brain, and the time it 
 takes to get there, the period of incubation, depends upon the location of 
 the wound; if the wound is in one of the extremities it takes longer to 
 reach the brain, and the period that follows when it once reaches there we 
 divide into three stages: the melancholic, the spasmodic, and the paralytic. 
 It takes 5 or 6 days for these three stages to close the scene with death. 
 
 Dr. Baker , Lansing : I left off the point of my remarks, in one respect, 
 relative to one part of the “vicious circle” I spoke of. It is a very simple 
 thing, but it is a very important one, that is to disinfect all sputa, and 
 especially all sputa of all consumptive persons. Not only consumption is 
 spread by sputa, but most of the throat and lung diseases are spread in 
 that manner. It is a simple thing to disinfect or destroy all sputa, and that 
 should be done.