The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-09-22

digestive tract Gntestines) anywhere
from the mouth downwards, has been
shown to be the chief mode of infec-
tion with tuberculosis"
DR.. Salmon. very great authority,
says the same thing:
Various statistical studies indicate
that a considerable proportion of the
cases of human tuberculosis. and par
tiCularly with children, originate
through the ingestion (swallowingl OF
the bacilli with contaminated food"
MIX Offers Chance.
If tubercle germs are in the milk il
TO obtain foothold in the human sys-
TEN. This theory is borne out by
abundant evidences.
According to our own federal au-
thorities, per cent of all tuberculo-
sis is bovine in type. OF every one
hundred deaths, seven contract the
disease from dairy products. DR.. NJ
P. Ravanel, one OF the pioneer investi-
gators, found from his own expert
ments eight per cent. The British
Royal Commission has given about the
same estimate.
This means that of every hundred
perishing from the white plague"
seven or eight trace to the use of some
dairy product infected with bovine tu-
bercle. 4,0S4 died from the disease
in Indiana alone last year. II we use
the governments estimate, 2S6 of
these deaths were due to the diseased
COW. In the entire country 10000 vic
time were lost through tuberculosis;
Of these. according to the same esti-
mate, 5000 were of the bovine type.
And there were at census taking time
| in fha rfn n.
! lion persons i'll; seventy-five thousand
of these were sufferers from the cat
tie type.
Children Are Victims.
| These facts in themselves are ap-
palling enough but their most start
| ling significance is seen when we I'M
| derstand the majority of sufferers
from the bovine stubercle are children
under five years Of age.
| According to a government report,
Of 1,040 cases, 6S6 were over sixteen
and nine were bovine; 1872 were be-
tween five and sixteen and 33 were
| bovine; 120 were under five years of
age and SO were bovine.
That means that of all small chill
| dren dying from tuberculosis, 49.1
per cent have received the infection
from contaminated milk. DR.. Ravanel
estimated 80 to 40 per cent, while He'll
er found ASS per cent.
Prof. j. Ffbinger, of Copenhagen,
| said: I'm some hospitals in Kiel, Ber-
lin and Copenhagen, nearly every
sixth or seventh child, when examin-
ed post-mortem has primary mesen-
| teric tuberculosis, and this is bovine
| in origin.
Child or cow?.
Adult tuberculosis is decreasing
throughout the world, thanks to the
| interchangeable efforts of the Tubercu-
| losis Societies and similar agencies,
but child tuberculosis has decreased
very little On the contrary there have
been found many new forms of the
disease among children. This is due
to the fact that more and more chill
dren are fed from dairy milk and. ow-
ing to peculiar circumstances, seven
or eight times as many infected cat
tie will be found in a dairy as in a
private herd.
The fight to eradicate tuberculosis
from our dairy herds is fight to
save the children. They are the I'M
necessary victims of conditions that
are due to negligence or to greed and
nothing else. No dairy man can deny
that bovine tuberculosis is infectious
to human beings; no dairy man can
deny that he has at hand an almost
deny that we have at hand an almost
infallible means for stamping it uot.
The only reason any dairy man will
oppose those means is that he may
lose cow or two.