PREVENTION, SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT 2 cg 



of tuberculosis in this country is yet unsettled. It consists of a 

 culture of dry, living tubercle bacilli of the human type. Objection 

 has been made to bovovaccination because virulent human tubercle 

 bacilli have been found in the calf's glands eighteen months after 

 such treatment. It is said that 2 or 3 intravenous injections of ]/ 2 

 gm. tuberculin at intervals of ten days will afford similar immunity 

 in calves. 



The milk from tuberculous cows is unfit for food for man or 

 beast, particularly when the udder is diseased, but also when it is 

 not. Thus in investigations at Washington (Anderson) it has been 

 shown that eleven per cent, of dairies supplied milk containing 

 tubercle bacilli, and this is borne out by the examination of thou- 

 sands of samples abroad. 



As to the danger to humans, the investigations of the British 

 Royal and the German Commissions have authoritatively shown 

 that from 10 to 23 per cent, of the tuberculosis in children is due to 

 the bovine type of tubercle bacillus — and therefore to milk. Park 

 estimates that 25 per cent, of tuberculosis in children is due to the 

 bovine tubercle bacillus. Koch states that eleven out of every twelve 

 cases of tuberculosis in the human are cases of tuberculosis of the 

 lungs, and in these the bovine type of tubercle bacillus is never found. 

 This restricts tuberculous infection from milk to the remaining 

 twelfth of human cases and to a percentage of these. In children, 

 diseases of the bones and glands are the commoner forms, and it is 

 to these that the figures of the Commissions above chiefly apply, and 

 in which the bovine bacillus is found. Theobald Smith states that 

 1 to 2 per cent, of all cases of tuberculosis in humans, including 

 adults and children, are caused by the bovine tubercle bacillus. The 

 whole question is still in an unsettled state, but any method of caring 

 for cows which does not include the tuberculin test, and in which 

 milk is used from cows that have not been shown free from tuber- 

 culosis by the tuberculin test, must be condemned. The health au- 

 thorities in many cities require that milk shall only be sold which is 



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