132 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE). 



I claim without hesitation that the danger from tuberculosis to 

 the cattle industry alone justifies the destruction or isolation 

 of every reacting animal. 



Tuberculosis from the public health point of view was the 

 part of the discussion at the late Congress that created the most 

 interest. There has always been a difference of opinion among 

 scientists as to the degree of danger of "bovine tuberculosis" to 

 the human family. Prof. Koch, at the Congress held in London 

 in 1901, declared that there was a difference between bovine and 

 human tuberculosis and that it was rarely inter-communicable. 



At that time there were others who thought that Dr. Koch 

 was right, yet there were others who had been investigating 

 along such lines that convinced them that there was a degree 

 of danger but at that time the degree could not be settled upon 

 and I understand it was left unsettled. Prof. Koch, being the 

 discoverer of the bacilli of tuberculosis and the inventor of 

 tuberculin, other scientists were not strong enough in their find- 

 ings and beliefs to set aside Koch's decision in the matter and 

 his declaration stood although disputed by some scientists. At 

 the last Congress held in September, or seven years later, this 

 same unsettled question was brought to the attention of every 

 member of the Congress. After seven years of experiment and 

 investigation made by the most scientific men in the world, Prof. 

 Koch again made the same declaration. I heard him say that 

 there was a difference between human and bovine tuberculosis 

 and unless investigations were carried out along such lines as 

 he laid down, he would not agree that bovine tuberculosis was 

 dangerous to man to any degree worth troubling ourselves at)OUt. 



Prof. Koch's ideas and deductions did not pass current at the 

 late Congress. 



There were 33 countries represented and 32 of them I under- 

 stand were against him in the stand that he took. While at one 

 time he stood at the head of his class scientifically and was 

 acknowledged to be one of the greatest pathologists of the world, 

 yet today the concensus of scientific opinion even of his own 

 nationality, seems to be against him. Possibly Prof. Koch is 

 right in his conclusions and the rest of the scientific world is 

 wrong, yet if we accept the latest decision laid down by the 

 Congress in 1908, it will be that there is a danger and especially 

 to children. 



