The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-03-02
TUBERCULOSIS FROM MILK.

as an dutnOTltS on luDeicutS4iSs ahoUS
his report that the dread disease could
not be communicated from cattle &c
man. the medical profession imme-
diateIy questioned his conclusion am
declared it must have been based on
insufficient data. The British royal
commission has been Investigating.
and i'm a recent report published in the
British Medical Journal. discredits
Koch absolutely and without qualifi-
cation.
Setting forth the nature and number
of subjects investigated by it, the COM
mission says:
'Of the sixty cases of human tuber-
euIosis investigated by US. twenty
veioped, and they possess clinical his
tories indicating that in them the ba-
eilIi apparently were introduced into
the body by way of the alimentary ca
nal-these facts Indicate that a very
large proportion of tuberculosis con-
tracted by ingestion is due to baeilh
of bovine source.
"A very considerable amount of dis
ease and loss of life. especially among
the young, must be attributed to the
consumption of cows milk containing
tubercle bacilii The presence of tu-
berele bacilli in cows milk can be de-
tected, though with some difficulty, if
the proper means be adopted. and such
mil 70 ha
There is far less difficulty in recogniz-
ing clinically that a COW is distinctly
suffering from tuberculosis, in which
case she may be yielding tubereulOus
milk. The milk coming from such
COW ought not to form part of hu-
man food, and, indeed, ought not to be
used as food at all.
Our results clearly point to the ne
cessity of measures more stringent
than those at present enforced being
taken TO prevent the sale and con-
sumption of such milk"
Experimentally the investigation in
cluded the incubation of monkeys
with the bovine tubercle bacilii, with
progressive tuberculosis within 100
days. disprOving to that extent Koch's
theory that the bovine disease could
not be transmitted. There can be
no doubt" concludes the report. that
in certain number of cases the tu-
berculosis occurring in the human sub
ject, especially in children. is the di-
rect result of the introduction into the
human body of the baeilli of bovine tu-
berclosis: and there can also be no
doubt that in the majority at least OF
these cases the bacillus is introduced
through COWS milk
The lesson of this conclusion is OBJ
vious. KOch's unfOunded assurance
that milk contained no danger of tu-
berculOsis to human subjects led to a
relaxation Of care i'm the investigation
Of the disease originating in milk. The
later and beter-founded report points
to a need for general vigilance and in
spectiOn of sources of milk supply. Pro-
vision ought 10 be made by every stale
and every community for such precau-
tons as would insure the examination
of every source Of milk supply and the
destruction of animals that may
spread infection. The test for such
cases is not expensive. and where so
many human lives are imDeriiled by
carelessness, the preventive method is
wise economy. One diseased COW may
bring disease TO numbers of people.
and either as humane measure or as
matter OF public economy, the pre-
ventive measure would be less costly
to the state than liberation of such
menace with the cost it would infiict
If the state can afford to spend thou
sands for the destruction of wild ami
mails, which at most endanger nothing
but property, it can we'll afford to
spend as much, and more, for the de-
struction of a disease which is the
heaviest burden mankind mas to bear.
Even in far New Zealand, the Utopia
of labor, there is trouble some times,