HUMAN AND BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS. 
691 
one cow to four individuals, the rarity of phthisis in the island 
can be accounted for, if my theory is correct. That the dis¬ 
ease is rare we know from the writings of Schleisner, who 
says : “ According to the unanimous testimony of practition¬ 
ers on the island, consumption does indeed occur there, al¬ 
though remarkably seldom. In my own practice I have most 
carefully examined every patient who complained of even the 
slightest trouble in the chest, and out of three hundred and 
twenty-seven persons suffering from chronic diseases of the 
organs of respiration, I found only three with phthisis/’ 
Evans says that “ this statement is borne out by the more 
recent writings on the state of health in Iceland by Leared, 
Hjaltlin, and Finsen. It would appear that it is not with any 
national peculiarity that we have here to do, from the fact 
that Icelanders who migrate to Denmark fall into consump¬ 
tion not infrequently’.’ * 
Now let us look into the affairs of a little island in the 
Atlantic Ocean as they existed sixty-eight years ago. It will 
be remembered that in my former paper on this subject I 
made the statement that asses and goats were not tubercu¬ 
lous animals. The following is quoted from “ A Description 
of the Island of Saint Michael,” by John W. Webster, M.D., 
1821: “Every family in Saint. Michael has one or more 
asses, which are the principal beasts of burden in common 
use, subsisting on the coarsest kind of food; the females 
afford considerable milk, which is sold to sick persons. Al¬ 
though the island is so well stocked with black cattle, sheep 
and goats as to allow considerable exportation, few of these 
belong to the peasantry. Cows are mostly attached to the 
estates, and the peasant who hires a farm, in addition to a 
certain quantity of work to be performed for his landlord, is 
required to take charge of these, and convey the milk, butter 
and cheese to town, where they are sold for the benefit of the 
morgado, and the poor peasant receives no other recompense 
for his trouble than some slight abatement in his rent. The 
* Hirsch, “Handbook of Geographical and Historical Pathology,” 1886, 
Vol. iii., p. 177. 
