CONGRESS ON TUBERCULOSIS. 
465 
precautions necessary for its prevention. The greatest obstacle 
to successful action against tuberculosis, whether in man or ani¬ 
mals is the ignorance of the laity regarding the cause of the dis¬ 
ease. The immense majority of cattle owners are not yet con¬ 
vinced that contagion is the only cause of tuberculosis, and very 
few of them have yet made the slightest effort to check the spread 
of the disease. As a rule, cows and other cattle visibly ill from 
tuberculosis are still left alive and in close association with their 
fellows, although the lowest grade of common sense and pru¬ 
dence would suggest that such animals ought to be promptly 
killed, or, at least, isolated. It is not want of common sense, 
nor is it mainly lack of means, that is responsible for this inac¬ 
tion ; it is simply a want of conviction on the part of cattle 
owners that tuberculous animals are dangerous to their com¬ 
panions. 
The first thing necessary in this connection is education of 
the people regarding the nature of the disease. It is necessary, 
because in this country,where Parliament never moves except by 
the force of public opinion, the legislative action required will 
not be taken unless the people are satisfied of its wisdom, and 
also because even the most drastic sanitary measures enforced 
by rhe law are likely to fail if they are not supplemented by the 
intelligent cooperation of the people. The National Associa¬ 
tion for the Prevention of Consumption and the Royal Agricul¬ 
tural Society have been endeavoring to disseminate sound views 
regardingthe cause of bovine tuberculosis among farmers and 
others, but much remains to be done in this direction. But it 
is not reasonable to ask that things should be left as they are 
until the education of the farmer in the matter of tuberculosis 
has been finished. If there are any practicable and reasonable 
measures by which, figuratively speaking, the flow of tubercle 
bacilli from tuberculous cows to healthy human beings can be 
stopped or impeded, they ought to be immediately enforced. 
As soon as the valuable diagnostic properties of tuberculin 
had been proved by experience, it occurred to a good many peo¬ 
ple that its assistance ought to be called in in order to exclude 
tuberculous cows from milking herds. In other words, it was 
thought that although it might not be practicable to insist upon 
the application of the tuberculin test to all infected herds, and 
to compel the isolation or slaughter of all cattle thus found to 
be infected, it might still be possible to require that only cows 
found to be free from the disease by the application of the test 
should be kept for milch purposes. I doubt whether anyone 
