Annual Report for 1911 of Royal Veterinary College. 357 



The disease, unfortunately, is scarcely amenable to treat- 

 ment after symptoms have set in, owing to the impossibility of 

 causing medicines to pass directly into the stomach in which 

 the parasites are located, but there is a certain amount of 

 clinical evidence to show that turpentine and other so-called 

 anthelmintics are beneficial when given at the outset. 



Tuberculosis. 



The Royal Commission on Tuberculosis which was 

 appointed in 1901 issued its third and final Report during the 

 past year, and the conclusions embodied in it have a double 

 interest for stock-owners, because these share with other 

 members of the population whatever risks there may be of snimal 

 tuberculosis being transmitted to man, and at the same time 

 are specially concerned to know to what extent their economic 

 interests may l)e threatened by the measures considered neces- 

 sary to counteract such risks. It therefore appears to be 

 appropriate to summarise here the results of the Commission's 

 investigations during the last ten years, and to take stock of 

 the present position of the question touching the inter- 

 connection of human and animal tuberculosis. 



In the first place it may be well to recall the circumstances 

 which led to the appointment of the Commission. This was a 

 pronouncement made by the late Professor Koch in a lecture 

 delivered at an International Congress on Tuberculosis which 

 was held in London in 1901. It was to the effect that, contrary 

 to the opinion then very generally held in the medical and 

 veterinary professions, human and bovine tuberculosis were 

 practically independent diseases, and that cases of human in- 

 fection with tubercle bacilli derived from cattle were so rare, 

 if they occurred at all, that it was not worth while to take any 

 steps to counteract the danger. The principal arguments 

 advanced by Professor Koch in support of this view were — 



1. It was held that if tubercle bacilli present in milk or meat 

 were capable of infecting human beings, such infection must 

 have its starting point in connection with the digestive organs, 

 and in view of the frequent presence of the bacilli in milk, 

 cases of this kind ought to be frequently met with. In reality, 

 however, such cases were very rare. 



2. The tubercle liacilli present in the lesions of cattle atfected 

 with tuberculosis were held to be different in some important 

 respects from those present in cases of human tuberculosis, and 

 therefore, given an alleged case of human tuberculosis derived 

 from a bovine source, the question whether the disease had been 

 contracted in that way or not could be definitely determined 

 by studying the character of the bacilli present in the patient's 

 lesions. So far, attempts to detect in human beings the 



