MILK-BORNE DISEASES 123 



$240,000,000 annually, from this one disease in the 

 United States alone.* Tuberculosis kills as many 

 people, yoimg and old, each year as diphtheria, croup, 

 whooping-cough, scarlatina, measles, and typhoid 

 fever taken together.' It is, therefore, a social prob- 

 lem of great magnitude. 



During recent years, it is very gratifying to observe, 

 this problem has been receiving an increasing amount 

 of earnest attention. Whereas only a few years ago 

 it was neglected, practically no social effort being 

 made to combat its ravages, every civilized country 

 has now its organized movement devoting itself 

 to the study of the disease, the spread of information 

 concerning it, and the instruction of people how to 

 avoid it by adopting proper precautions, and how 

 the afflicted may be cured, as well as to the support and 

 increasing efficiency of curative institutions. Par- 

 ticular attention has been given, both in this country 

 and in Europe, to the study of the means by which 

 the tubercle bacilli are distributed; and some of the 

 principal means, such as reckless spitting, have been 

 brought within the provisions of the penal codes of 

 the various nations. 



It has long been known that tuberculosis can be 

 acquired by ingestion as well as by inhalation and 

 inoculation, but the part played by cow's milk in the 

 spread of the disease has only recently begun to 

 receive serious attention. That many persons, old 



