The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-10-04
Tuberculosis Congress Takes
 Issue on the Question
MOOTtD QUESTION SETTLED
Congress of Scientists Declares Adher- ence to Belief That Consumption Can Be Transmitted to
 Man From Cattle.

Washington, October -(special.) )- i The death knell of the theory of Dr. Robert Koch of Berlin. that bovine tuberculosis Is rarely, if ever commun- icated to man, was sounded today when at the closing session of the tubercu- losis congress resolution was adopted recognizing the intertransmissibility of bovine and human bacilli.
 What has probably been the most mooted question before the scientists of the medical world for many years is ! thus disposed of, so far as the pre- ponderance of scientific opinion is con 1 cerned.
 l The first resolution brought before 1 the committee brought the attention of the state and national governments to the necessity for obligatory notices of all cases of tuberculosis by physicians, the registration of such cases and the taking of measures by the public health authorities to rrevent the spread of the disease.
 That all governments should estab- l fish hospitals for the treatment of ad- vanced stages and sanitoria for incip- ! tent cases, was the purport of the sec
 ond resolution.
 | The regulation of sanitary conditions in factories and work shops, homes and 1 public buildings, in the hours of labor ] of tn e women and children was the sub
 ject of a resolution. That all these
 should be supervised by the govern
 ment and that, in this way large per- centage of the cases could Do prevented,
 was the burden of that part of the committees recommendation.
 Colleges and universities should es
 tablish courses in hygiene and similar subjects and all school children should be given like instruction, was thfsr ], opinion, expressed in another para
 graph. 1 Roosevelt Speaks. 1 In a notable speech before the losing session of the congress President Roose-
 welt lauded the reclamation of the Pan 1 anna canal zone from yellow fever and { kindred diseases as great triumph for 1 the medical profession and sanitation. 1 The President surrounded by secret ser vice guards, appeared at the national tu- berculosis congress entirely unexpeceted l ly at 12:30. Secretary Cortelyou was in l the midst of a speech when wild ap-
 plause at the rear of the hall and the
 opening bars of Hail to The Chief" '"
 which was soon changed to the air of the
 Star Spangled Banner told the dele
 gates and audience of the arrival of the 1 chief magistrate of the nation. President Roosevelt said: 1 "I could not deny myself the privilege | of saying a word of greeting to this note-
 worthy gathering.
 "It is difficult for us to realize the ex-
 traordnary changes the extraordinary
 progress in special endeavor during the ] last two or three generations; and in
 no other manifestation of human actvi-
 ty have the changes been quite so far
 reaching as in the ability to grapple with disease.
 conqIerng Disease. stIt is not so very long, measuring time l by history, since the attitude of man i towards disease such as that of consump- l ton was one of helpless inactivity. The
 tendency was to acquiesce in what was 1 considered to be the mandates of su- | perior power.
 Tt is but short time since even most
 gifted men of the medical profession
 knew as little as any layman of the
 real cause of disease like this and the 1 remedy to be invoked to overcome it.
 "It is apparently only within a few l decades I am almost tempted to say
 within few years, that we go back to cover the period of real progress. Take, for instance, the work the United States
 government i3 now doing in Panama.
 When the first railroad was built across Panama 1t was said with some founda- ton of proof that every sleeper was laid across the life of man.
 'Now the work on the canal in that identical place is being prosecuted on an infinitely larger scale, of course, than the mere building of railroad, under conditions which make the locality stand
 with ordinary localities of the United States in point of health.
 "The Isthmus of Panama. which was by-word for fatal disease, has become well known as a sanitarium, and it has be- come so because of the investigations of certain medical men with enough ability to find out the real causes of certain dis eases. especially yellow fever and mala- rial fever and who took measures to over come them.
 Heart of Africa. "At this moment in the heart of the great continent of Africa, there is a peculiarly R.tal disease known as the sleeping sickness, which if 1t had been known in ancient times, would have been known by some such name as the ''black death" or possibly as something caused by the fall of comet. If not, some similar explanation would have been ad- vanced.
 This disease killed POO, GOO out of soo.- GOO people in one district, n rate of slaughter, of course, indefinitely greater than that of any modern war, and the | chance to control that disease lies in the work of just such men as are present here and indeed. the men who are here. Until but few years ago, hardly an