TUBERCULOSIS. 437 



Eavenel, in summarizing the work of Drs. Park and Krumweide, 

 as well as others throughout the world, gives the following results : 



Of 63 children dying of tuberculosis at the babies' hospital 59 cases proved 

 to be human infection and 4 bovine, a percentage of 6J. 



Of 9 children dying of tuberculosis at the foundling hospital 4 proved to 

 have derived their infection from human sources and 5 from bovine, a percent- 

 age of 55. 



Of a total of 88 children under 5 years of age who died of tuberculosis 77 

 proved to have derived their infection from human sources and 11 from bovine, 

 a percentage of 12^. 



Combining the cases studied in New York with those of other 

 observers in different parts of this country and Europe, the following 

 results are obtained: 



Adults, 787 cases — 777 human and 10 bovine infection. 



Children, 5 to 16 years, 153 cases — 117 human and 36 bovine infection. 



Children under 5 years, 280 cases — 215 human and 65 bovine infection. 



The figures of the foundling hospital show the real danger of un- 

 protected cows' milk. 



The conclusion from these studies is inevitable, namely, that in 

 children, in addition to the large number of deaths which occur from 

 bovine infection, there are many cases of infection resulting in 

 deformities, necessitating operations more or less severe in character 

 and which frequently leave the patient disfigured permanently. 



It must be plain to all, from these recent developments, that too 

 much has been made of the slight differences in cultural character- 

 istics, in morphology, and in virulence which have been observed in 

 some cases in comparing the human and the bovine bacilli. The 

 observations were interesting, and it was important that they be 

 followed up until their significance was made entirely clear, but it 

 was an almost unpardonable error, from a sanitary point of view, 

 to promulgate sweeping generalizations calculated to arrest and 

 abolish important measures for preventing human tuberculosis before 

 the soundness of these generalizations had been established by a 

 thorough course of experimentation. 



Wlien Koch said in the British Congress on Tuberculosis that he 

 should estimate the extent of infection by the milk and flesh of tuber- 

 culous cattle and the butter made of their milk as hardly greater than 

 that of hereditary transmission, and that he therefore did not deem 

 it advisable to take any measures against it, he went far beyond what 

 was justified by any experiments or observations which he reported, 

 and he did a great deal of harm, which will be manifested for years 

 to come, to those who endeavor to guard the human race from the 



