T"CrB:BE.OTJI_.OSIS. 



By The Hon. A. NORTON. 



Bead he/ore the Roi/al Society of Queenshmd, 18th Autjust, 1894. 



" Cattle suffer from tuberculosis, and this may be communi- 

 cated from the bovine to the human subject." This is the 

 alarming assertion with which nervous people are made uncom- 

 fortable at the present time. Not long since cancer was the 

 bogie with which we were entertained ; this was but a bogie, 

 as has now been admitted, but for several years the public were 

 warned that the heel they eat or the milk they drank might 

 introduce into the system the germs of this terrible disease. It 

 may be considered presumption on the part of a non-scientist to 

 oppose such statements when they have the support of medical 

 men. Presumptious or not, I ventured to dispute the accuracy 

 of the assertion re Cancer, because I knew that many animals 

 which suffered from what was often spoken of as cancer were 

 slaughtered and their flesh used for food without any bad 

 result to those who eat it. At last it has been shown that what 

 was commonly spoken of as cancer in cattle is not cancer at all ; 

 that bovine cancer, instead of being quite a common disease, is 

 very rare ; and that bovine cancer is not at all the same as 

 human cancer ! The cancer bogie, therefore, has been dismissed, 

 let us hope for ever. Ah ! but then cattle suffer from tuber- 

 culosis, and this may be communicated from the bovine to the 

 human subject ! 



So far as this statement is concerned, it has the support of 

 scientists of the highest standing. Young children to whom 

 the unboiled milk of cows is given may contract the disease by 

 that means. Similarly, those persons who eat the underdone 

 flesh of tuberculous animals may contract the disease by 



