456 
CONGRESS ON TUBERCULOSIS. 
development. Beggs hopes to have got so far in five years that in 
the city of New York alone the annual number of deaths from 
tuberculosis will be 3000 less than formerly. I take this oppor¬ 
tunity of most urgently recommending Dr. Beggs’ organization 
to the study and imitation of all municipal sanitary authorities. 
Now, I do indeed believe that it will be possible to render 
the sanatoria considerably more efficient. If strict care be taken 
that only patients be admitted for whom the treatment of those 
establishments is well adapted, and if the duration of the treat¬ 
ment be prolonged, it will certainly be possible to cure fifty per 
cent., and perhaps still more. But even then, and even if the 
number of the sanatoria be greatly increased, the total effect 
will always remain but moderate. The sanatoria will never 
render the other measures I have mentioned superfluous. If 
their number become great, however, and if they perform their 
functions properly, they may materially aid the strictly sanitary 
measures in the conflict with tuberculosis. 
If now, in conclusion, we glance back once more to what 
has been done hitherto for the combating of tuberculosis, and 
forward to what has still to be done, we are at liberty to declare 
with a certain satisfaclion that very promising beginnings have 
already been made. Among these I reckon the consumption 
hospitals of England, the legal regulations regarding notifica¬ 
tion in Norway and Saxony, the organization created by Beggs 
in New York, the sanatoria, and the instruction of the people. 
All that is necessary is to goon developing these beginnings, to 
test, and if possible to increase their influence on the diminution 
of tuberculosis, and wherever nothing has yet been done, to do 
likewise. 
If we are continually guided in this enterprise by the spirit 
of genuine preventive medical science, if we utilize the experi¬ 
ence gained in conflict with other pestilences, and aim, with 
clear recognition of the purpose and resolute avoidance of wrong 
roads, at striking the evil at its root, then the battle against 
tuberculosis, which has been so energetically begun, cannot fail 
to have a victorious issue. 
TUBERCLE BACILLI IN COWS’ MILK AS A POSSIBLE 
SOURCE OF TUBERCULOUS DISEASE IN MAN. 
By Professor John McFadyean, M.B., M.R.C.V.S. 
As recently as a few days ago, when I was mentally arrang¬ 
ing the material for the paper which I have now the great honor 
