The Springfield herald., 1908-10-09
milk CAN CARRY
TUBERCULOSIS
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS BY
RESOLUTION coNTRovERTS
DR.. kocH's THEORY.
ROOSEVELT ON PANAMA
WORK OF MEDICAL EXPERTS HAS
ALMOST CHANGED ISTHMUS
INTO A SANlTARlUM.

Washington.-A signal victory was
won Saturday by the opponents of the
theory advanced by Dr. Robert Koch,
the eminent German scientist, minimiz-
ing the danger of human infection
from bovine .ubercule bacilli when the
sixth triennial International Congress
on tuberculosis, just before final ad
journment, placed itself squarely on
record in opposition to the views of
the German .,avant.
The body by unanimous vote
adopted a resolution recognizing the
possibility" of human infection from
the bovine tubercule bacilli. The text
of the resolution is as follows:
Resolved, That the utmost efforts
should be continued in the struggle
against tuberculosis to prevent the
conveyance from man to man of tuber-
culosis infection, as the most impor-
tant sources of the disease.
That preventive measures be con-
tinued against bovine tuberculosis and
that the possibility of the propagation
of this to man be recognized"
The action of the congress on this
noteworthy issue. it is thought, will
for the time being, put quietus to
further agitation, at least until the next
meeting of the congress in Rome in
1911. This scientific battle has been
waged with great vigor ever since DR..
Koch advanced his doctrine at the Lon
don congress on tuberculosis in 1901.
An entirely unexpected, but one of
the most pleasant surprises of
the closing scenes of the con
gress was the appearance for the first
time during its proceedings of Presi-
dent Roosevelt.
The Presidents appearance was
greeted with tremendous applause and
he delivered a characteristic address.
He said that in no other manifestation
of human activity had the changes
been quite so far reaching as III the
ability to grapple with disease.
He spoke of the great changes
wrought in Panama since the United
States government had begun the
building of the canal there.
when the first railroad was built
across Panama" said the President,
''it was said with some foundation of
truth, with but slight exaggeration,
that Every sleeper laid cost the life
of man Now the work on the ca
nal, in that identical place, is being
prosecuted on an infinitely larger
scale, of course, than the mere build
ing of a railroad, under conditions
which make the locality stand above
the ordinary locality in the United
States in point of health The 18TH
mus of Panama, which was by-word
for fatal disease, has become well-nigh
sanitarium, and it has become so
because of the Investigations of GER
tain medical men Which enabled them
to find out the real causes of certain.
diseases, especially yellow fever and
malarial fever, and to take measures
to overcome them"
President Roosevelt spoke of the pc.
culiarly fatal and terrible disease. the
sleeping sickness, prevalent in Africa,
which in one region had killed 100000
out OF 100000 inhabitants.
THE chance to control that disease,
declared he, Lies in the work of just
such men as, and indeed of some of
the men who are assembled here. You
who have come here. however, have
come to combat not scourge confined
to the tropics, but what is on the whole
the most terrible scourge of the people
throughout the world But few years
ago hardly IN intelligent effort was
made or could be made to war against
this peculiar deadly enemy of the hu-
man race. The chance successfully
to conduct that war arose when the
greatest experts in the medical world
turned their trained intelligence to
the task. 1t remains for them TO find
out just what can be done. The task
then will be for the representatives
of the government to give all possible
effect to this conclusion of the scien-
tific men,"
The President declared that medical
scientists have shown just as much
heroism in the fight against tubercu-
loss as ever was shown by a soldier
on the field of battle, and in closing
said:
Il feel that no gathering could take
place fraught with greater hope for
the welfare of the people at large than
this assemblage."
Secretary of the Treasury Cortelyou
presided at the closing session The
closing sessions were marked by re-
sponses by the representatives of
thirty-three nations. reflecting the con
fident hope that medical science will
in the not distant future triumph over
the scourge Of tuberculosis.