12 Mr. Alec Wilson on 



such proof had yet been offered of any risk from the cow reacting 

 to the test but clinically healthy. In short, he submitted that the 

 presence of a minute quantity of living tubercle bacilli in the milk 

 of a clinically healthy animal was not a matter to be feared ; the 

 risk of contracting the disease seemed to depend on the size of the 

 dose, and the injection of a small quantity at any one time would 

 rather tend to immunise the person, than to kill him. A feature in 

 the ordinary milk trade that he believed to Heat the bottom of the 

 problem was the common everyday practice of swapping milk from 

 one delivery cart to another. They might know their man and 

 know his farm, and might be sure that both were above suspicion, 

 and yet, when the milk-server was short, he might replenish his 

 stock from an unknown and dangerous source. It would be a 

 most valuable safeguard if the practice were prohibited. He would 

 make it a penal offence to sell milk from a tuberculous udder, and 

 would appoint a veterinary surgeon with a roving commission 

 to examine where he pleased, and free for any farmer in case the 

 latter suspected any of his animals, the diseased cow to be 

 slaughtered on the spot at the cost of the owner. At the most 

 perhaps 2 per cent of the animals would be affected by such 

 regulations. A great need existed in Belfast for the establishment 

 of a dairy where every known precaution would be taken, almost 

 regardless of cost, to insure the scientific purity of its milk. If the 

 medical profession wished for such milk in their treatment of 

 disease they might select a milk committee from their number, 

 who would draw up rules and approach either an individual cow- 

 keeper or the Dairymen's Association, guarantee a certain demand 

 at a named price, and select a suitable farm. The doctors could 

 insure a constant demand, for in the ordinary course of their 

 practice they could prescribe that particular milk. There were 

 two sides to the problem of how to deal with the scourge of 

 tuberculosis, one being the matter he had considered that night, 

 the proper way of checking infection from milk under normal 

 conditions, and the other being the method of dealing with 

 existing illnesses. 



The Chairman said they were all greatly indebted to Mr. 



