No. 6. DEPARTMENT 01*^ AGRICULTURE. 47U 



been appoiuU'd in Gerniauy to make fui'tber investigations, aud he 

 suggested Hiat the same should be doue here, and that the Minister 

 of Agi'ieuUure should be approached with that object iu order that 

 the question might be settled by actual experiment. IJut for the 

 present he strongly urged that they should continue to take pre- 

 cautionary measures. 



The paper of Prof. Koch contains two important statements which 

 we may well examine ioto: 



1. The claim that human tuberculosis differs from bovine, and can- 

 not be transmitted to cattle. 



2. That if man is really susceptible to bovine tuberculosis at all, 

 the ''infection of human beings is but a very rare occurrence. I 

 should estimate the extent of infection by the milk and flesh of tuber- 

 cular cattle, and the butter made of their milk, as hardly greater 

 than of hereditary transmission, and I therefore do not deem it ad- 

 visable to take any measures against it." 



In regard to the first point we may admit that it is, in the main, 

 true, though the statement of Prof. Koch goes too far. Indeed two- 

 of the authors quoted by him as having failed to induce tuberculosis 

 in cattle by means of human products, Chauveau and Bollinger, 

 should both be ranged on the opposite side. Chauveau was the first 

 who ever experienced aIo«ig these lines, and succeeded in infecting 

 several animals of the bovine species with material from persons 

 with tuberculosis. In the answer to Prof. Koch by Prof. Nocard just 

 given above, these experiments are mentioned in some detail. They 

 were given in full by Chauveau at the "Congress for the Study of 

 Tuberculosis in Man aud in Animals'" held in Paris, France, on July 

 28, 1891, and may be found in the ''Comptes Rendus et Memoires" 

 of that Congress page 52. These experiments are so well known that 

 Prof. Kcch's allusion is inexplicable. 



Furthermore, Prof. Ihomassen, of the Veterinary College, Ut- 

 recht, Holland, reported to the Congress the result of recent experi- 

 ments by himself, in which he succeeded in producing an extensive 

 general tuberculosis in one of four animals inoculated with human 

 tubercle bacillus. The inoculation was made into the anterior cham- 

 ber of the eye, and the calf slaughtered about six weeks later, "and 

 found to be the subject of a pretty generalized tuberculosis. The 

 eyeball was marked atrophied. After hardening, sections of it 

 showed tuberculous lesions, especially on the iris, these lesions con- 

 taining masses of Koch's bacilli. The sub-parotideal, cervical, med- 

 iastinal aud bronchial lymphatic glands of the same side were tume- 

 fied and hypertrophied. On one section they showed miliary tuber- 

 cles. The bacilli were recovered from the bronchial lymphatic glands, 

 and sections of the various glands show^ed tuberculous lesions con- 

 taining the bacilli. The lungs were affected on both sides, especially 



