HUMAN AND BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS 247 



is primary in origin. Probably it would be correct to say that of 

 all tuberculosis in children in this country about 25 per cent, is 

 alimentary in origin/ and in 60 or 70 per cent, of the cases the 

 mesenteric glands are affected.- Both these sources of informa- 

 tion deal with deaths only, but no doubt a number of cases of 

 alimentary tuberculosis recover, the infection having been a mild 

 one (Raw). 



In the second place, as we have already pointed out, some 2 or 

 3 per cent, of all milch cows have tuberculous udders, and yield 

 virulent milk. There can, therefore, be no doubt that a certain 

 amount of tuberculous milk is being daily consumed, and mostly by 

 children, the least resistant of whom contract alimentary tubercu- 

 losis, which in a certain percentage of cases proves fatal. 



Dr Nathan Raw has recently made the ingenious suggestion 

 that the human body is susceptible to both human and bovine 

 tuberculosis (which he admits are different species of the same 

 disease), but that they are antagonistic to each other, and do not 

 attack the body simultaneously. Further, he holds that the bovine 

 species of tubercle, conveyed by milk, attacks the body (the ali- 

 mentary tract) in the early periods of life, setting up Tabes viesen- 

 terica and abdominal tuberculosis, which is bovine in origin ; and 

 that the human species, conveyed commonly by contact with dried 

 infective matter, attacks the body (the respirator)' tract) in the 

 later periods of life, setting up pulmonary tuberculosis. He agrees 

 with Martin, Woodhead, and others that if tuberculous milk be 

 absorbed through the tonsils and pharynx, it causes tuberculosis in 

 the cervical glands in the same way as in the pig.^ 



Taking a broad view of the facts set out above, we hold that 

 whilst tuberculosis is not chiefly spread by means of milk, there is 

 unmistakable evidence, derived from pathological and clinical 

 experience, proving that tuberculous milk can, and does, set up 

 some form of tuberculosis (bovine or human) in the bodies of man 

 and other animals consuming the milk. 



Powers of Resistance of the Tubercle Bacillus 

 In this sub-section we propose to deal briefly with the effect of 

 high temperatures upon the tubercle bacillus, as it concerns the 



^ PractiiioTier, August 1903, pp. 201, 216 (Price- Jones). 



2 Ibid., also Brit Med. Jour., 1903, p. 596 (Raw). 



^ Report of Royal Commission on Tuberculosis, 1895, P^"^ "'■» PP- ^^> '9 5 

 Human and Bovine Tuberculosis, by Nathan Raw, M.D., F.R.S.E., 1903, pp. 

 4, 8, and 12. 



