FALLACIES IN THE REPORT OF THE 

 ROYAL COMMISSION ON TUBERCULOSIS 



By RALPH VINCENT, M.D., M.R.C.P. 



Senior Physician and Director of the Research Laboratory, The Infants Hospital, London 



The Final Report of the Royal Commission on Human and 

 Animal Tuberculosis has almost completely failed to carry 

 conviction to those who have studied the subject. There are 

 few pathologists who express anything but a very modified 

 approval of the Report, the usual view being that the Com- 

 missioners have throughout failed to grapple with their subject 

 in the logical and thorough manner essential in an inquiry 

 fraught with such consequences to the public health. The 

 general community, unaware apparently of the reception that 

 has been accorded to the Report by scientific men, is disposed 

 to regard the questions discussed by the Commissioners as 

 finally settled : their decisive statements and the vigorous 

 terms in which their conclusions are formulated have been 

 extensively reproduced in the Press and have done much to 

 mislead both the medical profession and the general public. 

 In these circumstances it would appear to be a duty to indicate 

 the fallacies inherent in the Report and the grave dangers 

 involved in the acceptance of the views so strongly advocated 

 by the Commissioners. 



It is necessary, however, to distinguish between the Report 

 and the scientific work carried out by the various experts 

 engaged on behalf of the Commissioners. The results of the 

 scientific work are recorded in numerous appendices ; these 

 constitute a mine of information for the serious student of the 

 subject. The Final Report of the Royal Commission, in the 

 writer's opinion, however, wholly fails to do justice to 

 the scientific investigations on which it purports to be based. 

 In fact, the conclusions of the Royal Commissioners are widely 

 divorced from the scientific observations. The whole trend 

 of the scientific observations appears to run one way, the 



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