580 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



Ill speaking of scarlet fever, I have lueutioned that it has 

 been suggested that it affects the cow as ^Yell as man. The 

 same has been suggested regarding diphtheria. 



There are some acute cattle-diseases which, if not actually 

 conveyable to man, a;t any rate cause the milk of cows affected 

 vv'ith them to be unfit for human consumption. Such are the 

 cattle plague, foot-and-mouth disease, and pleuro-pneumonia. 

 The use of milk from cows suffering from these diseases may 

 induce in man inflammation of the lungs of a severe and often 

 fatal Idnd. 



I now pass to a^nother class of infectious disease affecting 

 man which may be conveyed to him by means of milk. Those 

 diseases of which I have hitherto been speaking are acute 

 fevers in which the characteristic symptoms appear in a com- 

 paratively short time after infection, and in regard to which it 

 is therefore a comparatively easy task to set on foot investiga- 

 tions to prove their possible connection with a milk-supply. 

 Those diseases to which we now turn our attention are, as a 

 rule, of a more chronic nature. Their symptoms are at first 

 vague. Often it is not until months, even years, after they 

 have been acquired that it is realised that the affected indi- 

 vidual is suffering from them. To this class of diseases be- 

 long leprosy and tuberculosis. 



With regard to leprosy and its connection with the milk- 

 supply, I would mention merely as a matter of interest a sug- 

 gestion made by Dr. Neve, a medical missionary stationed at 

 Kashmir, a man whose academic career proved him a careful 

 and reliant observer. Dr. Neve says that in Kashmir leprosy 

 exists to a considerable extent among herdsmen, all of whom 

 also consume largely milk and milk-products. One adult may 

 eat from 61b. to 121b. of curds in twenty-four hours ; putrid 

 buttermilk is considered a delicacy. It is easy to see that a 

 leprous milkman might spread infection, and in this connec- 

 tion Dr. Neve points out that Europeans who drink unboiled 

 milk, if they chance to live in a district where leprosy is en- 

 demic, might thus contract the disease. In fact, he says, this 

 may be the explanation of various recorded cases. So much 

 for leprosy. 



The subject of tuberculosis demands much more attention. 

 Perhaps I ought in the first place to state for the benefit of 

 some what is meant by tuberculosis. It is the scientific name 

 for what is more generally known as consumption— that fell 

 disease the cause of which has until quite recently been so 

 imperfectly known, arid the ravages of which have for ages 

 Ijeen so vast among civilized peoples, seeking its victims too 

 especially among those who should be entering on their life's 

 work in all their vigour. It is estimated that from 10 to 14 

 per cent, of all deaths are due to tuberculosis. In Britain, 



