752 Agricultural Journal of Victoria. 



pointed out that this disease was in all animals due to the presence of 

 the Bacillus tuberculosis, he indicated that in all animals it was 

 uniform. This was in 1882, but in 1901 he affirmed (1) that human 

 tuberculosis differed from bovine tuberculosis, and that human tuber- 

 culosis could not be transmitted to cattle, and (2) that owing to the 

 infrequency of the transmission to man by milk or meat of tubercular 

 animals any more than hereditary transmission it was unnecessary to 

 take steps to prevent it. 



Professor Nocard in 1897 and 1898 conclusively proved that the 

 two bacilli were only varieties of the one species, and the use of 

 unboiled milk for children was strongly condemned by him. At the 

 Congress on Tuberculosis in Paris opened on the 25th July, 1888, it 

 was carried unanimously that the meat of tuberculous animals should 

 be destroyed in toto, and if the meat from such an animal, which must 

 be cooked before being used, was in the opinion of this learned body 

 of scientists deemed so deleterious to public health, how much more 

 so the milk from such a one, when it is so often used unsubjected to 

 sufficient heat to destroy the bacilli. Professors Virchow and Gerlach 

 have drawn attention to the frequency with which milk is infectious, and 

 the danger attending its consumption by human beiugs. In an address 

 by Professor Walley, Principal of the Edinburgh Veterinary College, 

 before the Medico-Chirurgical Society at Edinburgh on 15th Feb- 

 ruary, 1888, he stated, " Milk is undoubtedly the medium through 

 which transmission is most likely to take place." This fact seems to 

 have been borne home to that gentleman, as he stated that shortly 

 after his arrival there he had lost a child through tabes mesetiterica,. 

 induced in his opinion by milk with which it was liberally supplied. 

 That this was the medium of infection, Drs. Taylor and Stevenson Smith 

 were also of opinion. In various continental cities, where pasteurized 

 or sterilized milk is more commonly used than in London, it is found 

 the percentages of cases of abdominal tuberculosis in comparison to 

 phthisis is far less than in Great Britain where these precautions are 

 not so universally adopted. Dr. Sims Woodhead draws particular 

 attention to the number of young children he has found affected on 

 post mortem examination with abdominal tuberculosis. Dr. Little- 

 john, at the same meeting as Professor Walley, said, " I think it 

 cannot be doubted that this formidable disease is communicable from 

 the lower animals to man." Professor Greenfield at this same 

 meeting said, "As regards bovine and human tuberculosis, I cannot 

 bring myself to believe, or rather I cannot find that there is any 

 certain mark by which one can distinguish bovine from human 

 tuberculosis." I might go on quoting authorities indefinitely in 

 various parts of the world whose opinions coincide with those I have 

 quoted, and coming near to the present time I will give you the 

 views of a few more scientists trained in the highest seats of learning, 

 and holding advanced opinions formed as the result of years of 

 patient investigation, combining not only theory but also the result of 

 practice in their professions either as medical or veterinary practi- 

 tioners. But more recently, we find in Tlie Veterinarian, September, 

 1899, in a report of the National Veterinary Association held 



