576 VETEEINAKY HYGIENE 



not the slightest hesitation would have been felt in placing 

 at the door of the bovine a considerable share in the pro- 

 duction of tuberculosis, but the authority of Koch has 

 declared it otherwise ; he regards human and bovine 

 tuberculosis as distinct diseases, and states that the human 

 disease cannot be transmitted to cattle, and indicates, 

 though he does not expressly deny, that the bovine disease 

 cannot be communicated to man. 



In consequence of Koch's views the Eoyal Commission 

 on Tuberculosis was directed to inquire, among other 

 points, into the question of whether the disease in animals 

 and man is one and the same. 



The Commission has now made an interim report on this 

 vitally important question, and arrived at the conclusion 

 that tubercle of human origin can givet,rise in the bovine 

 animal to tuberculosis identical with ordinary bovine tuber- 

 culosis. 



The Commission rightly deprecates any framing or 

 modification of legislative measures, in accordance with the 

 view that human and bovine tubercle are specifically differ- 

 ent from each other, and that the disease caused by the 

 one is a wholly different thing from the disease caused by 

 the other. 



The transmissibility of tuberculosis to animals of the same 

 species cries out for legislation, but nothing has yet been 

 attempted in this respect. An affected cow is permitted 

 to remain in the same shed as healthy animals, though it 

 is a focus of infection. 



Where expense is no object it is a perfectly simple 

 matter to stamp out tuberculosis in a herd, and to prevent 

 its further introduction ; but excepting in the case of 

 pedigree stock, the cost of such a system is prohibitive 

 without the aid of the State. 



This matter of compensation must be looked at from the 

 tax-payer's point of view. He may very reasonably say he 

 has paid to stamp out cattle plague, pleuro-pneumonia, and 

 foot and mouth disease ; that he is now paying to stamp 

 out swine fever, and that he cannot, without too heavily 



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