1036 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION I. 
and have ceased to believe that hereditary weakness is the cause 
of it, it will very rapidly go down ; and we may—not perhaps in 
my old age, but in the old age of a great many of the persons I 
have the pleasure to see before me—I say that we may find that 
consumption will be as rare a disease in this country as typhus 
has become at the present time.” 
These are words of great encouragement. If, however, a con- 
summation so desirable is to be achieved, intelligent and ceaseless 
efforts must be directed by improved legislation. The tubercle 
bacillus is highly infectious, and the avenues by which it can 
reach the human subject are more numerous than in any other 
communicable disease. A person suffering from it may infect 
other persons ; animals supplying milk, or whose carcases are 
utilised as human food, are sources of infection; and a whole 
series of domestic animals with which men and women are con- 
stantly in contact, although differing in degree, are mediums of 
its conveyance to man. The horse, the cow, cattle generally, 
sheep, swine, dogs, cats, and birds, die of tuberculosis. Surely, 
therefore, the: keenest vigilance is wanted, backed by the most 
advanced form of public health administr ation, to oppose a disease 
at once so subtle and so destructive. 
I foresee that my remarks here will at once be discounted by 
the statement that Australia is freer from tuberculosis than old 
European countries. This notion, I admit, is countenanced by 
health reports occasionally saying that “the proportion of dairy 
stock suffering from tuberculosis is much smaller than in European 
countries.” In the face of a system of inspection so utterly 
ineffective as the present is admitted to be, this assertion cannot 
be relied upon. A few years ago the same misconception was 
held respecting the condition of things in England, but it does 
not exist to-day. Recent experience ‘has dispelled the illusion, 
and has shown that as inspection became more efficient so the 
proportion of diseased cattle was found to increase. One authority 
asserts that “ the proportion of infected cattle has been found to 
rise much higher, one-half—even three-fourths—of the cows being 
affected.” W hile, as regards the carcases for human food, he 
says: “ Where inspection is efficient, the existence of tuberculosis 
is revealed in from one to three out of every ten head of cattle 
slaughtered in the abattoir.” What efficient inspection has done 
for England it would do for us. For an Australian veterinary 
surgeon, Mr. 8. 8. Cameron, of Melbourne, tells us—in an in- 
teresting communication read before this Association a few years 
ago—speaking of tuberculosis: “I have, however, no hesitation 
in saying that it is as common in these colonies as in any part of 
the world,” He proceeds to defend his position by arguments 
and illustrations which it would take too much time to detail. I 
am disposed, however, from the nature of the disease and the 
a eee 
