Goafs' Milk.-199 



that tuberculosis can be, and is, communicated to human 

 beings through the milk and flesh of cattle afflicted with 

 that disease, the increase of consumption in children 

 being largely attributed (according to Lord Play fair) 

 to the use of tuberculous milk. Now, when we consider, 

 on the one hand, the terrible character of this insidious 

 and fatal disease, and, on the other hand, the absolute 

 necessity for the use of milk in the healthful rearing of 

 children, such a revelation is simply appalling. What 

 makes matters worse, moreover, is that a cow may be 

 suffering from the malady in its earlier stages without the 

 disease being detected ; for we are told that ' ' there may 

 be no appearance visible to the naked eye of the action of 

 the tubercular bacillus in a particular animal, and yet it 

 is in all probability there." Indeed, a case was reported 

 in the British Medical Journal affording an illustration 

 of this. In view of such a state of things, who will not 

 experience a sense of relief on hearing that goats' milk is 

 practically free from this element of danger? Such, 

 however, is the statement of numerous medical and 

 veterinary authorities. 



The late Sir William Broadbent, in an address on the 

 " Prevention of Consumption and other forms of Tubercu- 

 losis," delivered at the Technical College, Huddersfield, 

 in October, 1905, made allusion to this fact in the 

 following sentence: "It is interesting to note that asses 

 and goats do not suffer from tuberculosis, and to bear in 

 mind that the shrewd physicians of past days used to 

 order asses' and goats' milk for persons threatened with 

 consumption." Dr. Pol Demade, director of the Sana- 

 torium at Haeltert, Belgium, in a paper read at the First 

 National Congress for the " Improvement of the Goat," 

 said, in comparing the milk of the goat with that of the 

 cow in this particular : " (i) There are in Belgium at the 

 present time 300,000 milch goats and 900,000 milch cows ; 



