116 



TUBERCLE 



At the British Congress on Tuberculosis, held 

 in London in 1901, Professor Koch delivered an 

 address, in which he stated that bovine tuberculosis 

 and human tuberculosis are not one and the same 

 disease, and that the risk of infection from cattle to 

 human beings is so small that it is not advisable to 

 enforce burdensome restrictions for the sake of 

 preventing such infection. He supported this 

 opinion partly by the negative results of some 

 inoculation - experiments on animals, partly by 

 hospital statistics, as to the rarity of primary 

 tuberculous infection of the intestines. In the 

 subsequent criticism of this address, Lord Lister, 

 Professor McFadyean, Professor Nocard of Paris, 

 Professor Thomassen of Utrecht, and Dr Ravenel 

 of Philadelphia, were all opposed to him : and, in 

 the general judgment of men well qualified to study 

 the matter, he failed to prove his point. An 

 admirable account of his address, and of the dis- 

 cussion which followed it, is given by Professor 

 Stengel and Dr Edsall of Philadelphia, in Gould's 

 Year-Book, 1902. The chief results of the Con- 

 gress are described by Dr Priestley, Medical Officer 

 of Health for Lambeth, in the Medical Annual, 

 1902. He says : — 



"The year 1901 will long be remembered as 

 the year in which the British Congress on Tuber- 

 culosis was held in London. Three important 

 addresses were delivered, and many interesting 

 papers read and discussed. The feature of the 

 Congress was Professor Koch's address on * The 

 combating of tuberculosis, in the light of the experi- 



