302 



HUMAN AND BOVINE TUBERCrLOSIS. 



I'our }ears a.'j;o I had the honur to rc])rcsciit this IWuird as a 

 (icleg'atc to the Ninth International 'l\ilK'rculnsis Congress, held 

 at Washington, D. C. 



As a result thereof I do not hesitate to say that the City and 

 County of Honolulu is today practically free from bovine tuber- 

 culosis, and that the milk supply of Honolulu has been improved 

 a hundred fold, and is today on a par with the best that is to be 

 found anywhere. Thereby is not meant that it is perfect, far from 

 it, as will be shown, but what in most places is considered an in- 

 surmountable obstacle, something to avoid or shirk or circumvent, 

 that is, the eradication of tuberculosis from the dairy herds, has 

 been accomplished in one of the counties of the Territory, and 

 has demonstrated that tlie same can be done in the entire group. 



The principal reason why I am taking this subject up at some 

 length in this report is that two of my deputies, on ?Iawaii and 

 ]\Iaui, are both of the opinion that tuberculosis has recently begun 

 to spread at a much increased rate among the dairy herds in their 

 respective districts, and further, that I have every reason to be- 

 lieve that had the work of eradication been delayed or deferred 

 even one year longer here, we should have found conditions which 

 it would have been impossible to tackle without extraordinary 

 means and measv:res. 



There have been times during the past four years when I have 

 been in doubt as to the advisability or the justice of the policy 

 adhered to, that is, the absolute and uncompromising eradication 

 of the disease, the toleration not even of a single reacting animal 

 on premises where milk is produced for human consumj^tion. but 

 I am happy to say that, as the reports on similar work done in 

 other States, Territories or foreign countries are received, it has 

 become more and more certain that under conditions like those 

 which obtain here there can be no procrastination, no dilatory 

 methods — that if we were to conquer the disease here, it could be 

 only by way of the slaughter house and not by any "luang,"" 

 "Ostertag" or "Birmingham" or any other method of eradication. 



The preliminary reports of the Tenth International TubercuK)sis 

 Congress, held at Rome this summer, have just come to hand. 



As in the previous meeting, the most important question was of 

 human and bovine tuberculosis in their relation to eacli other, 

 (^nly I'rof. Koch was not there any longer to defend his ultra- 

 radical views on the subject and more definite conclusions were 

 agreed on. Every civilized country in the w(~)rld was rejiresented, 

 there beinc more than 3.000 attendants. ( )ne of the most inter- 

 esting papers was bv Prof. Calmette. who. among- many other 

 things, mentioned ( 1 ) that judging from their appearance mider 

 the microscope the hun-'an and the bovine tvpe of the tubercle 

 bacillus cannot be definitely differentiated; (2) nor does culture 

 methods distinguish them ab"-o]ii)(l\- from (.■aeh other: but ( ,^ ) liv 



