830 
A. S. HEATH. 
ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
[Written specially for the American Veterinary Review.] 
THE BOARD OF HEALTH AND TUBERCULOSIS. 
By A. S. Heath, M. D., V. S., Prof, of Hygiene, Breeding, etc., at the 
American Veterinary College, New York. 
No. I. 
The statement of the Board of Health that “ tuberculosis is 
an infectious disease” is not a theory of the medical profession, 
but a fact demonstrated by Koch, and confirmed by scores of 
earnest and reliable pathological investigators. 
Immediately after Dr. Koch had discovered the tubercle 
bacillus in 1881, and hoped that, by a sterilized culture he termed 
tuberculin, tuberculosis might be beneficially treated, many 
credulous physicians seized upon the hopeful anticipation as a 
settled fact, and used the tuberculin in every case that would 
submit to the hypodermic treatment, and the failure was almost 
universal. 
Except in local lesions of the disease, few cases were per¬ 
manently benefitted. Sanitariums for the “ cure ” of consump¬ 
tion quickly sprung up in many sections of the country. In all 
of the announcements of these establishments special stress was 
laid upon the healthfulness of the localities. The air, water, 
temperature, altitude, and telluric conditions were all dwelt upon 
as essential aids in the tuberculin treatment, and especially were 
these concomitants made prominent inducements in the u cure,” 
when the faith in the tuberculin treatment flagged. My late 
lamented friend, Prof. Alfred L. Loomis, has proved conclusively 
that there is great virtue in the proper climatological condi¬ 
tions for the treatment of pulmonary affections, as shown in the 
Adirondack and Sullivan County regions. 
But hygienic or preventive medicine justly claims precedence 
over the treatment of disease. This is demonstratively the case 
in infectious maladies. This is the special province of all boards 
