July 20, 191 1] 



NATURE 



81 



without delay, because if any buildings are erected 

 on the spaces referred to, any such Science Museum as 

 the Commissioners have had in contemplation during 

 the last thirty years, for which they have freely given 

 their land and offered money, will be impossible of 

 realisation, to say nothing of future extension. 



"I have reason to think that if the Commissioners 

 would again take up the question, remind the Gov- 

 ernment of their continuous action and appeal to 

 the Government to consider the matter, such an 

 appeal would be received sympathetically. If such 

 an appeal could be accompanied by the renewal of 

 the offer, already twice made, to provide a money 

 contribution towards the building, the matter would, 

 of course, become still more hopeful. 



" The last Annual Report shows that the Commis- 

 sioners have in hand funds available for such a 

 purpose, and, speaking as a Commissioner, 1 can 

 conceive no more worthy expenditure, as it will 

 give full effect to the great purposes the Commis- 

 sioners have had in view^ during the whole time they 

 have been engaged in carrying out the late Prince 

 Consort's wise advice as to the best use of their 

 property in the nation's interest." 



In 1910 the Commissioners took action in the 

 matter. In the *' Further Correspondence " already 

 referred to [Cd. 5673] is given a letter (June 25, 1910) 

 from the Secretary : — 



"The Board of Management of the Royal Commis- 

 sion for the Exhibition of 1851 have recently had 

 before them a proposal to establish at South Kensing- 

 ton a permanent building for the accommodation of 

 the National Science Collections. . . . 



" Believing that the application to such an object of 

 a portion of their surplus funds would be consistent 

 with the declared policy of the Commissioners, they 

 have resolved to recommend to the Commissioners a 

 repetition of their former offer of 100,000/. towards 

 the expense of providing a Museum, subject to their 

 being; satisfied that his Majesty's Government are pre- 

 pared to make provision, so as to secure the erection 

 of an adequate building." 



On August 25, 1910, the Treasury accepted this 

 offer. While this correspondence was going on the 

 Office of Works was writing to the Trustees of the 

 British Museum with regard to the Northern Boun- 

 dary, a subject dealt with in the previous notes. 



We now learn from The Times report of Mr. Runci- 

 man's speech on the Education vote (July 13, 1911) 

 that at last some compromise has been arrived at. 



" Since the first announcement was made about the 

 site of the Science Museum I have entered into 

 negotiations with the Trustees of the British Museum, 

 and w : e have now arrived at an agreement which will 

 give us the land we require for the Science Museum 

 and will not interfere with the development of the 

 Natural History Museum, so that we shall have in 

 South Kensington a group of museums which will be 

 the envy of foreig-n nations." Norman Lockyer. 



THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON 

 TUBERCULOSIS. 



THE Reports of Royal Commissions are as a rule 

 based almost entirely on summaries of oral 

 evidence submitted by authorities, expert or otherwise, 

 on the subjects with which these Commissioners have 

 been called tog-ether to deal. Such Commissions 

 can be expected to give little more than a r&sume' of 

 what is already known. 



In the Final Report of the Royal Commission on 



Tuberculosis (Cd. 5761 ; price 6d.) it is soon made 



manifest that here something more than personal 



opinions of even the most eminent authorities have 



NO. 2177, VOL. 87] 



been brought together. The very genesis of the Com- 

 mission made this necessary. The greatest living 

 authority on the subject of tuberculosis, Robert Koch, 

 had for long taught that tuberculosis was a disease 

 common to animals and man, a disease induced bv a 

 specific micro-organism, the tubercle bacillus. Of 

 this micro-organism there might be varieties in which 

 the virulence or disease-producing- activity might be 

 higher in one and lower in another, but they were 

 still essentially and specifically the same wherever they 

 were found in the tuberculous lesions, whether of man 

 or of animals. 



At the International Congress held in London in 

 July, 1891, Koch had turned round (perhaps not sud- 

 denly, though the announcement of the volte face had 

 come with startling suddenness) and had announced 

 that the tuberculous disease of cattle was not the 

 same thing as tuberculosis of the human subject, 

 and that the tubercle bacillus found in the tuberculosis 

 of cattle was non-virulent for man. 



The experimental work on which this statement was 

 based was considered by many of the scientific men 

 who heard the pronouncement to be totallv inadequate 

 to bear the wide generalisations founded upon it. 



Lord Lister, the late Prof. Nocard, Prof. Bang, 

 Sir John McFadyean, Dr. Sims Woodhead, and others 

 were in agreement that the statement, if true, would 

 revolutionise our whole attitude to the tuberculosis 

 problem, and that before it could be accepted indepen- 

 dent and corroborative evidence must be obtained. 



Sanitarians in the United States appreciated the 

 importance of this to the full, and the morning- after 

 Koch's address was given a telegram was received in 

 London from Washington stating that the tenor of 

 the address had been noted, and that arrangements, 

 financial and otherwise, had been made to carry out ex- 

 periments to test the trustworthiness of Koch's thesis. 



Although a resolution asking the British Govern- 

 ment to appoint a Royal Commission had been carried 

 at the meeting of the Executive Committee, the busi- 

 ness of the closing meeting of the Congress had been 

 practically concluded, and no resolution asking for this 

 Commission had been brought forward, and none 

 could be found. One or two members of the Execu- 

 tive Committee, however, had carried the terms of the 

 Resolution in their memories, they were hurriedly 

 committed to paper, and the matter was placed before 

 the meeting. Lord (at that time Sir James) Blyth 

 had made a most generous offer to place a farm or 

 farms at the disposal of any Committee or Royal Com- 

 mission appointed, and it was evident that any such 

 Commission set to work to inquire into the question 

 would be able to carry on its investigations under 

 most satisfactory conditions. 



In these circumstances the Right Honourable Walter 

 Long, M.P., then President of the Local Government 

 Board, advised her Majesty Queen Victoria to appoint 

 a Royal Commission with instructions to inquire and 

 report with reference to tuberculosis : — 



1. 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 and un- 

 favourable to such transmission. 



The Commission appear to have laid down a very 

 definite plan, from which there has been no deviation. 

 It was asked to inquire and report on the_ above 

 questions. No inquiry except an actual experimental 

 investigation seemed to give promise of any_ trust- 

 worthy results, and the scheme of work did not include 

 lb.- taking- of oral evidence. 



