HOW FAR MAY A COW BK TUBERCULOUS BEFORE 



HER MILK BECOMES DANGEROUS AS AN 



ARTICLE OF FOOD?* 



By Harold C. E^knst, A.M., M.IJ)., of Boston. 



The change of opinion in regard to the infections natnre of tuber- 

 culosis has been very marked in the last few years, not among the 

 scientists, but among the people at large. Of course tiie medical 

 world lias, as a rule, accepted the conclusions to be drawn from 

 Villemin's work of twenty-five years ago, and the discovery of the 

 specific cause of the disease by Koch has only added strength to the 

 theories advanced in certain quarters Jjef ore that time. 



The change of opinion spoken of is, after all, hardly a change, but, 

 more properly, an acceptance of the knowledge gained in regard to 

 the disease by the more recent and exact methods of research, and a 

 much wider dilTusion of that knowledge. More and more is it the 

 rule that the knowledge of the transmissibility of tuberculosis by 

 means of infected material is recognized among those whom it con- 

 cerns the most, and nothing but good can come from the diffusion of 

 that knowledge. 



It is hardly too much to say that proper methods of management 

 of tuberculosis, both in human beings and in animals, involve more 

 important interests — pecuniary as well as vital — than any other sub- 

 ject that engages the attention of medical men. It is well known 

 that one-seventh of the human race, approximately, perish from this 

 disease, and when we acknowledge to ourselves, as a fair review of 

 the evidence at hand must force us to do, that most, if not all, of this 

 loss is preventable our duty is plain before us. That is, never to 

 cease speaking of it, never to give up trying to reconcile the money 

 interests of man with his own welfare, and to do all in our power, by 

 the collection of clinical and experimental evidence, to make the case 

 complete. 



The work showing the etiological relationship of the bacillus of 

 tuberculosis to the disease was, to all intents and purposes, complete 

 upon the publication of Koch's monograph upon the subject. Nothing 

 more in the way of proof was actually needed, and, indeed, very 



♦Preliminary results of experiments undertaken under the auspices of the Massachu- 

 setts Society for Promoting Agriculture. 



