I 26 



NA TURE 



[June 9, 1904 



... I will certainly do all I can to promote any such 

 idea." 



Mr. Robert Newstead (Chester) writes ; — " You would 

 have my heartiest support in the matter, as I feel that such 

 an institution would be of material benefit to the Agri- 

 culturists and Horticulturists of this country." 



Mr. A. E. Shipley (Cambridge) writes : — " I should 

 welcome the founding of an Association of Economic 

 Biologists if you think we are really strong enough. . . . 

 If the Association is formed I hope it will be a really work- 



ing one. 



Mr. Cecil Warburton (Cambridge) writes : — " I heartily 

 approve of your suggestion with regard to the formation 

 of an Association of Economic Biologists in this country." 



Similar letters or expressions of opinion have been re- 

 ceived from Dr. A. H. R. BuUer, Mr. Herbert Stone, and 

 others. W.alter E. Collinge. 



The Unii-ersity, Birmingham, May 30. 



THE RELATION OF HUMAN TO BOVINE 

 TUBERCULOSIS. 



THE Royal Commission appointed to inquire into 

 the relation of human and animal tuberculosis 

 has presented an interim report published on June i. 

 The Commission was appointed in August, 1901, soon 

 after Prof. Koch's address had been delivered at the 

 British Congress on Tuberculosis held in London in 

 July, 1901, in which he stated that as the result of 

 experiments on animals, cattle, pigs, asses, sheep, and 

 goats, he " felt justified in maintaining that human 

 tuberculosis differs from bovine tuberculosis, and 

 cannot be transmitted to cattle," and he also stated 

 that " though the important question whether man 

 is susceptible to bovine tuberculosis at all is not yet 

 absolutely decided, and will not admit of absolute 

 decision to-day or to-morrow, one is, nevertheless, at 

 liberty to say that, if such a susceptibility really exists, 

 the infection of human beings is but of very rare 

 occurrence. I should estimate the extent of the infec- 

 tion bv the milk and flesh of tuberculous cattle and 

 the butter made of their milk as hardly greater than 

 that of hereditary transmission, and I, therefore, do 

 not deem it advisable to take any measures against 

 it." According to Koch the chief danger of infection 

 is froni human tuberculous sputum. He suggested 

 as the most important means of combating the 

 disease the improvement of general hygienic condi- 

 tions, provision of suitable hospitals and sanatoria for 

 consumptives, and inspection and disinfection. 



Lord Lister, at the conclusion of Prof. Koch's 

 address, struck a note of warning. He pointed out 

 " how serious and grievous a thing it would be if the 

 rules now in force for securing purity of milk supply 

 should be relaxed, and it should turn out after 

 all that the conclusion was erroneous." This attitude 

 was taken up by a number of other leading patholo- 

 gists. Since Koch's statement a number of workers 

 have published the results of experiments on the sub- 

 ject, and the bulk of the evidence has been opposed to 

 Koch's view. 



The most striking and interesting pronouncement 

 on the subject has been from one of Koch's most dis- 

 tinguished pupils, von Behring, who on this subject 

 places himself in a position entirely opposed to that 

 of his old master. To many minds von Behring's 

 view appears to be as extreme as Koch's. He holds 

 that " the main source to which phthisis must be 

 traced is the milk diet of infants." He found that 

 in young animals such as guinea pigs, owing to tlie 

 incomplete continuity of the epithelium, numerous 

 bacilli, and among them the tubercle bacillus, could 

 pass through the wall of the alimentar}' canal, giving 

 rise to a tuberculosis of the cervical glands of the type 



NO. 1806, VOL. 70] 



of scrofula in the human subject, and that at a later 

 period these animals not infrequently developed a type 

 of tuberculosis which has been regarded as indicative 

 of inhalation tuberculosis. The freedom with which 

 milk-bacilli find their way through the walls of the 

 alimentary tract into the circulation owing to the 

 incomplete continuity of the epithelium and absence of 

 active ferment secretion in young animals makes " the 

 disposition to tuberculous infection entirely physiologi- 

 cal and normal." .'\t a later period in life a similar 

 susceptible state may be induced by the exanthemata 

 such as scarlet fever and measles. Von Behring, 

 along with Romer, has also shown that immunity 

 mav be conferred on bovines by injection of tubercle 

 bacilli of human origin, a striking argument in favour 

 of the specific relationship of the two types of bacilli. 

 These views, which have appeared since the appoint- 

 ment of the Commission, have only emphasised the 

 need of further investigation. 



The commissioners state that they felt it their duty 

 to publish this interim report because the experimental 

 results obtained by them are so striking. 



The Commission was to inquire and report with 

 respect to tuberculosis : — 



(i) Whether the disease in animals and man is one 

 and the same. 



(2) Whether animals and man can be reciprocally 

 infected with it. 



(3) Under what conditions, if at all, the transmis- 

 sion of the disease from animals to man takes place, 

 and what are the circumstances, favourable or un- 

 favourable, to such transmission. 



The first line of inquiry upon which the Commission 

 entered was to ascertain the effects produced by in- 

 troducing" into the body of the bovine animal, either 

 through the alimentary canal as food or directly into 

 the tissues by subcutaneous or other injection, tuber- 

 culous material of human origin, that is, material con- 

 taining living tubercle bacilli obtained from various 

 cases of tuberculous disease in human beings, and 

 how far these effects resembled or differed from the 

 effects produced by introducing into the bovine animal 

 under conditions as similar as possible tuberculous 

 material of bovine origin, that is, material containing 

 living tubercle bacilli obtained from cases of 

 tuberculous disease in the cow, calf, or ox. More than 

 twenty strains of tubercle bacilli have been employed, 

 that is to say, the material taken from more than 

 twenty cases of tuberculous disease in human beings. 

 The effects produced were compared with those result- 

 ing from the injection of different strains of tubercu- 

 lous material of bovine origin. In the case of seven 

 of the above strains of human origin the injection of 

 the human tuberculous material into cattle gave rise 

 at once to acute tuberculosis, with the development of 

 widespread disease in various organs of the body. In 

 some instances the disease was of remarkable severity. 

 In the case of the remaining strains the effects were 

 less marked. The tuberculous disease was either 

 limited to the spot where the material was introduced 

 (this occurred, however, in two instances only, and 

 these at the very beginning of their inquir}'), or 

 spread to a variable extent from the site of inoculation 

 along the lymphatic glands with, at most, the appear- 

 ance of a very small amount of tubercle in such 

 organs as the lungs and spleen. Material, however, 

 taken from the bovine animal thus affected and 

 introduced into other bovine animals has, up to the 

 present, in the case of at least five of these remaining 

 strains, ultimately given rise in the bovine animal 

 to general tuberculosis of an intense character. The 

 disease thus set up in the bovine animal by material 

 of human origin has been compared with that set up 



