TUBERCULOSIS AND FOOD.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 390, 26 August 1911, Page 3

TUBERCULOSIS AND FOOD.

The presentation of the first report of the British Royal Commission on tuberculosis constitutes an important : event in the history both of science and of public health. Eleven years ago the eminent German bacteriologist, Dr Koch, created a sensation by his assertion that the germ of tubercle in cattle and in human beings were essentially different, and that there ; was no need, therefore, for the customary precautions against, tuberculous infection from milk and meat, it 1 was the validity of this pronoucemet that the commission was specially ' charged to investigate, and it has done so by the most thorough practica' > research and experiment in its own j laboratories, spread over nearly a de- , cade. Its conclusions amount to a j complete refutation of the thesis ad- | vanced by the German savant. It has ! been proved that certain cases of : human tuberculosis are undoubtedly of the "bovine'' type, and the bacillus of the disease in cattle is found especially in those, cases where "consumption' - in human beings has attacked the intestines. This points directly, of course, to tuberculous food as a ; source of infection, and the verdict of ; the commissioners is clear and unhesitating " that, animals and man can be reciprocally infected with the disease." That most of the cases ex- ; amined should have occurred in young | children is a fact that lays _special j emphasis upon the responsibility of the milk supply, but it is evident that, j in respect both of milk and meat, public authorities must not only enforce all existing safeguards, but concert measures for still closer supervision, j One of the subsidiary inquiries conducted by the commission was directed to the origin of lupus, with the inter- ! esling result of ascertaining that the majority of such cases are due to a . form of tuberculous microbe that is of the "bovine" type, but differs from ; the organism usually found in c attic | in its virulence for other animals. ; But the deepest impression made by | the report will certainly be its dm ; matic overthrow of the assertion so i dogmatically propounded by a scien- j tilic authority, and its vindication of i the view consistently maintained by | Lord Lister and the majority of Bri- ; tish physiologists.