NEW YORK MILK COMMITTEE 69 



It came to the notice of the Health Department a little more 

 than a year ago that a large number of cases had come from 

 one man, who had had typhoid fever forty-seven years ago. 

 We found that he was still passing typhoid fever bacilli in 

 great abundance. We have had other cases, and one of our 

 men, Dr. Baldwin, who has been giving considerable attention 

 to typhoid fever and watching and looking up the cases, says 

 that milk produces more typhoid in New York than any other 

 single thing. That agrees, you see, with Commissioner Evans' 

 observations in Chicago. 



Now, to take up the last point that I want to touch upon, 

 that of tuberculosis. All of you who have been in touch with 

 this work, know that from time to time there has been a great 

 change in our feelings about tuberculosis. I remember that 

 when I first took up, as part of my work, the direction of the 

 very small laboratories then in the Department, we believed 

 that the bacilli of cows were equally as infectious as those from 

 men, and we started in to tuberculin-test all the cows in 

 Greater New York, beginning with Greater New York and 

 expecting to pass out to the farms. We tested some 5000 

 cows in that year. Suddenly we got word that Prof. Koch 

 had stated that tuberculosis, as transmitted from cows to man, 

 was a negligible quantity. Although, of course, we had some- 

 what different views, that simply prevented us from going on. 

 If the greatest authority stated that it was so, it was almost 

 impossible for us to enforce the tuberculin test. Then, as you 

 know, men all over the world, as well as Koch himself, restudied 

 the question, and we had to go back to the careful observation, 

 not of cases but of bacteria obtained from actual persons dy- 

 ing of tuberculosis. The fact was that human tuberculosis 

 was to be found everywhere, and cow tuberculosis was to be 

 found everywhere, and that in Washington, Chicago, New York 

 and other places a considerable share of the milk was found 

 to contain such bacilli, and it was impossible to prove any re- 

 lation between those facts. Then it was found that the bacilli 

 had different characteristics, and case after case was studied, 

 to find out actually how many had tuberculosis from cows and 

 how many from man. So, of course, it was undertaken to 

 prove, if possible, whether some people or some children who 

 got it, got it from cattle. That was proved by the New York 



