. Breeder and sportsman. Horses. September 9, 1899] THE BREEDER AND SPORTSMAN. 1ST. Waning of the Tuberoulin Craze. We are fast emerging from the scientific craze stage of the tuberculin era into the common-sense period. It is odd to what extremes this scientific specialization will drive men. Laying their premises on a basis of germ determination they drive their logic inexorably up to the very brink. They found the germ of tuberculosis; germ diseases are communi- cable, and hence they jumped to the conclusion that tuber- culosis was as "catching" as diphtheria or smallpox, and rais
. Breeder and sportsman. Horses. September 9, 1899] THE BREEDER AND SPORTSMAN. 1ST. Waning of the Tuberoulin Craze. We are fast emerging from the scientific craze stage of the tuberculin era into the common-sense period. It is odd to what extremes this scientific specialization will drive men. Laying their premises on a basis of germ determination they drive their logic inexorably up to the very brink. They found the germ of tuberculosis; germ diseases are communi- cable, and hence they jumped to the conclusion that tuber- culosis was as "catching" as diphtheria or smallpox, and raised a mighty hue and cry, going so far as to demand isola- tion hospitals for consumptives and the destruction of every animal suspected of harboring the disease. And the tuber- culin test fitted so nicely into this great scheme. All that wae necessary was to shoot the etufi into the animal and if its temperature rose kill it. It was very simple; it was like- wise veiy wicked. A saner view now begins to assert itself. It has finally been beaten into the heads of these extremists that tuber- culosis is not a communicable disease in the sense that small- pox or diptheria or even typhoid are communicable diseases, but that the germs of the disease may be introduced into the respiratory or the digestive BVEtem with impunity so long as they do not find a diseased condition that furnishes a suitable habitat for their development. These germs are readily thrown off by the healthy mucous membranes, and depend on a weakened or diseased condition for lodgement and growth. If it were not so the whole human race would have long since been wiped off the face of the earth by this disease. Tuberculin was found to give reaction—that is, rise of temperature—in tuberculin animals. The logic of the scien- tist wae instantly applied. Kill all animals that react was his dictum. It mattered not that sometimes microscopic ex- aminations were necessary to detect the disease in the ani- mals that re
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1880, booksubjecthorses, bookyear1882
