New-York tribune., 1901-08-03

other measures must be adopted. Consumptive
patients should be removed from homes where
they a source of Infection and lodged in
special hospitals, where they can be properly
nursed. and where the sputum be rendered
innocuous. The founding of special hospitals
for consumptives where poor patients can
ceive free treatment is the most important
measure recommended by DR. Koch and II opens
a wide field of activity to private benevolence
and TO municipalities. Compulsory notification
OF tuberculosis he also considers Indispensable.
and adds that disinfection by public authorities
ought TO follow every death from consumption.
He also lays stress on the instruction OF all
classes respecting the infectiousness OF tuber-
culoss and the necessity for caution In inter
course with consumptives He includes among
preventive measures sanitary reforms in the
dwellings Of the poor: the establishment of hos
pitfalls for consumptives on the English plan; the
legal regulations regarding notification enforced
in Norway and SaXony; the scheme of organiza-
ton introduced by DR.. Biggs in New-York: pub
lie instruction respecting the real nature OF the
disease and the opening of sanatoriums for the
treatment OF tuberculosis. the experience in
German institutions OF this class having shown
that 20 per cent of the patients can be cured.
He believes that preventive measures are more
important than curative agencies. and that
other pestilences the battle against tuberculosis
which has been so energetcally begun. cannot
fail TO have victorious issue.
The most remarkable result OF this interna-
tional conference is the declaration Of the most
eminent bacteriologist living that bovine
tuberculosis and human tuberculosis are essen
TALLY different. and that one cannot be trans
mitted into the other. His cOrollary that
the infection OF human beings from meat. milk
and butter very rare occurrence, and
stringent preventive measures against the prod
ucts Of tubercular cattle We're unnecessary. Lord
lister and the other experts who discussed DR..
KoCh's paper not convinced that milk in
spectors, medical officers and police magistrates
would be justified without further investigation
In relaxing their exertions for the protection OF
the food supplies OF large communities: but there
was logical force in the German investigators
conclusion that the victims Of consumption
would be multiplied enormously If the germs OF
disease for the human patient were in milk and
butter containing the bacilli of bovine tubercu-
losis- II DR.. Koch be right. the danger Of inrec-
ton in tuberculosis comes not from tainted food
nor from heredity. but from the tubercle bacilli
cOughed up by patients with their sputum and
there are practical measures for rendering this
sputum innOcuous and for minimizing the evil.
The bacillus Of bovine tuberculosis, according to
this view. is not enemy OF human kind, but
only Of the beast that perishes. Psychologists
never fail to say good word for microbes after
describing the battle that is going in every
drop Of blood between the life giving corpuscles
and the invading horde Of disease bearers and
death dealers. II not long ago that Lord
Lister himself. after setting the good ladies Of
the British Association inio a panic by unfold
ing the secrets OF bacteriology, reassured every
body by paying an eloquent tribute to the ut-
ity Of microbes in the economy Of nature. and
by describing them as essential 10 the existence
or life and as having an ancient and honorable
ancestry since they were devouring and digest
ing one another and propagatng their useful
offspring during the long periods OF plant life
and geological time before the creation OF man