One cannot tell by looking at a cow whether or not she has tuberculosis. Sometimes a cow will have tuberculosis and yet look very healthy. There is, however, a way by which we can tell when a cow has this disease, no matter how healthy she may look. This is what is known as the tuberculin test. [Sidenote: How to detect tuberculosis in a cow] If a little tuberculin is injected under the skin of a cow that has tuberculosis, it will make her have a fever and appear sick for a day or two. If she is free from tuberculosis, it will not make her sick at all. It would seem as if all people who sell milk would want to know whether their cows have consumption so as not to run any risk of conveying the disease to their customers. Some of them do take this precaution, but a great many of them do not want to go to this trouble. Sometimes you will hear them say, "Oh, I do not believe in this tuberculin test." They do not want to believe in it because they know that the cows, if tested and found to have tuberculosis, will have to be killed. The reason that dairymen sell us milk from tubercular cows is the same that makes the man with scarlet fever in his house fail to tell the health officer about it; the same that makes the butcher buy and sell meat from diseased cattle; the same that makes some people absolutely regardless of the welfare of others--it is selfishness. =Questions.= 1. How does a patient give off tuberculosis germs? 2. Why should even well people refrain from spitting in public? 3. Why should the sputum be taken care of? 4. Why should we avoid the common drinking cup? 5. What is the danger from putting pencils into the mouth? 6. Is it safe to use another person's pencil? 7. What is the best way of sharing food? 8. How can one be protected from tubercular milk? =Remember.= 1. The sputum and discharges from all sores should be immediately burned or disposed of in such a way that they cannot become dry and be blown about as dust. 2. Consumption may be contracted by the use of the common drinking cup, or by putting into your mouth such things as pencils and coins. 3. The milk from a cow suffering from consumption contains the germ of tuberculosis. 4. A cow may have tuberculosis and not appear to be sick. 5. The only way to determine whether a cow has tuberculosis is by using the tuberculin test. 6. Every milch cow should be tuberculin tested. CHAPTER XXXIII HOW CONSUMPTION IS CURED [Sidenote: Consumption should be recognized early] When people first get consumption, they seldom realize that they are seriously sick. Most of them think they have a bad cold, or are overworked, or that they have been staying too closely in the house. Often they will not even see a doctor until they are so sick that the doctor cannot do much for them.