No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 45? 



TUE COMBATING OF TUBEKCULOSIS IN THE LIGHT OF THE 

 EXPEKIENCE THAT HAS BEEN GAINED IN THE SUCCESS- 

 FUL COMBATING OF OTHER INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 



''The task with which this Cowgiess will have to busj itself is one 

 of the most difficult; but it is also one m which labor is most sure 

 of its reward. 



I need not point again to the innumerable victims that tuberculosis 

 annually claims in all countries, nor to the boundless misery it brings 

 on the families it attacks. You all know that there is no disease 

 which inflicts such deep wounds on mankind as this. All the 

 greater, however, would be the general joy and satisfaction if the 

 efforts that are being made to rid mankind of this enemy, which 

 consumes its inmost marrow, were crowned with success. 



There are many, indeed, who doubt the possibility of successfully 

 combating this disease, which has existed for thousands of years, 

 and has spread all over the world. This is by no means my opinioa. 

 This is a conflict into which we may enter with a surely founded pros- 

 pect of success, and I will tell you the reasons on which I base this 

 conviction. 



Only a few decades ago the real nature of tuberculosis was un- 

 known to us; it was regarded as a consequence, as the expression, so 

 to speak, of social misery, and, as this supposed cause could not be got 

 rid of by simple means, people relied on the probable gradual im- 

 provement of social conditions, and did nothing. All this is altered 

 now. We know that social misery does indeed go far to foster tuber- 

 culosis, but the real cause of the disease is a parasite — that is, a visi- 

 ble and palpable enemy, which we can pursue and annihilate, just 

 as we can pursue and annihilate other parasitic enemies of mankind. 



Strictly speaking, the fact that tuberculosis is a preventable dis- 

 ease ought to have become clear as soon as the tubercle-bacillus 

 was discovered, and the properties of this parasite and the manner of 

 its transmission became known. I may add that I, for my part, was 

 aware of the full significance of this discovery from the first, and so 

 will everybody have been who had convinced himself of the causal 

 relation between tuberculosis and the tubercle-bacillus. But the 

 strength of a small number of medical men was inadequate to the 

 conflict with a disease so deeply rooted in our habits and customs. 

 Such a conflict the co-operation of many, if possible of all, medical 



