32 SCIENCE AND THE STATE, ETC. 



be the clinical manifestations, or the appearance of a particular 

 morbid growth, if the tubercle bacillus was present, the dis- 

 ease was tuberculosis. The further discovery of bacilli with 

 similar morphological, tinctorial, and cultural characters in 

 tuberculosis of the lower animals, and the fact that human and 

 bovine tuberculosis could both be readily inoculated in certain 

 animals led to the acceptance of the doctrine that tuberculosis 

 was a disease common to man and the lower animals and 

 readily inter-communicable. Koch, in the first publication of 

 his discovery, announced that tuberculosis of the domesticated 

 animals, and especially bovine tuberculosis, was undoubtedly 

 a source of human infection. This fact, he added, indicated 

 the position, which in the future, hygiene must take in con- 

 nection with the danger of the milk of tubercular animals. 

 Bovine tuberculosis was identical with human tuberculosis, and 

 was a disease transmissible to men. It was therefore to be 

 treated like other infectious diseases transmissable from animals 

 to human beings. 



Though proofs of the absolute identity of the two diseases 

 were undiscoverable, nevertheless Koch's statements were ac- 

 cepted and acted upon. The danger of consuming the flesh and 

 milk of tubercular animals was insisted upon in England, pro- 

 secutions and heavy penalties followed for allowing meat to b& 

 sold when there was even only a trifling indication of the 

 disease, and the flesh, to all appearance, perfectly healthy. 

 Magistrates were very severe in carrying out what they believed 

 to be measures for the protection of the public from a terrible 

 disease, and honest and well-intentioned tradesmen who had 

 erred from ignorance rather than intention were practically 

 ruined. There was not only a crusade against the sale of flesh 

 and milk from tubercular animals, but it was openly demanded 

 that all animals suffering from tuberculosis should be com- 

 pulsorily slaughtered, without even any attempt being made to 

 face the question of compensation. There is no doubt that 

 the result of this crusade was to inflict great hardships upon 

 farmers and the meat trade, and in a great many cases 

 grave injustice was committed. The discovery of tuberculin 

 made the position still more impossible, for, by its aid, facts 

 were brought to light, which proved that tuberculosis existed in 

 cattle to an extent which exceeded the wildest statements of 

 the most ardent believer in the danger of infection of mankind 

 from cattle. Lord Spencer's celebrated .Jersey cattle were 

 to all appearance in perfectly healthy condition, with the 



