76 THE MILK SITUATION IN THE DISTRICT OP COLUMBIA. 



gation by the British royal commission on tuberculosis, 60 cases of 

 the disease in human beings were tested, with the result that 14 were 

 determined by the commission to have been infected from bovine 

 sources. 



It may be stated with scientific accuracy, as the result of the 

 splendid work of American investigators, corroborated by the re- 

 searches of the British and German Government commissions and 

 independent investigators, that bovine tubercle bacilli are fairly 

 common in human beings, the frequent occurrence of bovine tuber- 

 culosis among children of itself emphasizing the importance of elimi- 

 nating by the tuberculin test cattle proved to be infected with tuber- 

 cular lesions, and insisting upon pasteurization before their product 

 is offered for sale. 



RESOLUTIONS BY NATIONAL AND LOCAL ASSOCIATIONS FOR STUDY AND 

 PREVENTION OF TUBERCULOSIS. 



At a recent meeting of the National Association for the Study 

 and Prevention of Tuberculosis, held in Washington in April, 1910, 

 resolutions were adopted (Appendix AD) urging the efficient 

 supervision of dairy herds and of the handling of milk from the 

 dairy to the consumer, and emphasizing the importance of a clean 

 and pure milk supply as essential to the public health. The reso- 

 lutions conclude with a feeble indorsement of the position that, in a 

 certain percentage of cases, human tuberculosis is due to infection 

 by tubercle bacilli of bovine origin. 



At a meeting of the board of directors of the local association 

 for the prevention of tuberculosis, held December 27, 1910, resolu- 

 tions offered by Dr. George M. Kober and seconded by Mr. Emile 

 Berliner and Dr. G. Lloyd Magruder, were unanimously adopted 

 (Appendix AE) reciting that, whereas it has been shown by indis- 

 putable evidence that numerous epidemics of typhoid fever and 

 other diseases have been traced to contaminated dairy products, that 

 a considerable proportion of the cases of tuberculosis occurring in 

 children under 5 years of age is the result of infection with the 

 bovine tubercular bacillus, and that the mortality among infants fed 

 upon cow's milk is very high, the Congress of the United States be 

 requested to investigate the relation of dairy products to the public 

 health, with a view to the enactment of remedial legislation. 



BACILLI INTRODUCED INTO HUMAN BODY DURING INFANCY. 



A potent factor in support of the belief that tuberculosis is di- 

 rectly communicable from cattle to man is the discovery in recent years 

 by bacteriologists of certain interrelated species of tubercle bacilli 

 showing apparent transition from the bovine to the human types of 

 tubercle bacilli and vice versa. It has furthermore been established 

 with apparent rationality that the bacilli may be introduced into the 

 human body during infancy and remain dormant until some later 

 period in life when they are aroused to activity and develop malig- 

 nant tuberculosis, their activity remaining latent, in some instances, 

 or being arrested until the person arrives at the age of three score or 

 more. 



