66 BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS AND OTHER CATTLE DISEASES. 



the work in meat inspection, that alimentary infection plays a 

 very important part in the infection of cattle and hogs. Such 

 observations have been made the basis of an assault on the 

 older theory of exclusive inhalation infection of the lung, and 

 tend to exalt the importance of alimentary infection. 



International Congress of 1908. At the International Con- 

 gress on Tuberculosis at Washington in 1908, Koch stated 

 that he believed bovine tuberculosis to constitute a minor 

 source of tuberculosis in man. He regarded pulmonary tuber- 

 culosis (phthisis) as the cause of eleven-twelfths of the deaths 

 from tuberculosis and he was not convinced that the bovine type 

 of tubercle bacillus has been shown to produce that type of 

 tuberculosis in man. He disparaged the importance of the 

 cases in which the bovine type of bacilli have been found in 

 glands on the ground that glandular tuberculosis, in compari- 

 son with pulmonary tuberculosis, is a minor cause of fatality. 

 On the point concerning the frequency of primary abdominal 

 and cervical tuberculosis, the belief was held by many of the 

 delegates that these types of tuberculosis are much more fre- 

 quent and important than believed by Koch (6). 



The portion of the resolutions of the Congress bearing on 

 bovine tuberculosis is as follows : 



<i 3. * * Again, the utmost efforts should be continued in the struggle 

 linst tuberculosis to prevent conveyance from man of tuberculous in- 

 tion as the most important cause of the disease. Further, preventive 

 'measures must be continued against bovine tuberculosis, and the possi- 

 bility of the propagation of this to man should be recognized." (31) 



Tuberculosis in Japan. The tendency to regard bovine tuber- 

 culosis as the chief source of tuberculosis in human beings, is 

 counteracted by certain evidence (1*2). 



In Japan very little cow's milk is used for food, the average 

 amount consumed daily per capita being only 2.825 cc. Espe- 

 cially is it rarely employed as food for children. Human 

 tuberculosis is as frequent in Japan as in Europe and America. 

 There the disease in man dates back to the earliest chronicles. 

 Tuberculosis occurs only in foreign cows and their crosses with 

 native cattle. Pure native cattle are relativelv immune and 



