508 
EDITORIAL. 
“ Bo vines take tuberculosis from man seldom ; but if, by 
any cause, the resistance of the cells is modified, reduced or 
suppressed, the human bacillus will be able to grow, proliferate 
and invade the organs of the subject whose resistance has been 
destroyed ; and then the bacillus, adapted to this new media, 
will be able to develop in other healthy bovines, which would 
have proved refractory to the action of the same bacillus taken 
directly from man.” 
But, anyhow, in admitting that bovines are really refrac¬ 
tory to human tuberculosis, would that give the right to con¬ 
clude that the reverse is also true? “ No,” says Nocard, “a 
hundred times no; it would be contrary to all the principles of 
experimental methods, contrary especially to existing facts.” 
How many veterinarians have been victims of it by wounds 
received at post-mortems. Some have recovered, like Prof. 
Jensen of Copenhagen ; others, less fortunate, have died, such 
as Moses of Weimar, Thomas Walley of Edinburgh. 
And the numerous and authentic facts of infection from the 
milk of cows with tuberculous mammitis, among which is, as 
most known and certain, that of one of the daughters of Prof. 
Gosse of Geneva. 
Finally, the works of the great English hygienist, Thorne, 
who proved by evidence the reality and severity .of the danger. 
While for 50 years the death rate in England by tuberculosis 
has diminished 45 per cent., that of abdominal tuberculosis of 
children has increased 37 per cent. 
The general improvement in lodgings, working shops, 
hygiene, etc., explains the first. As nothing has been done 
against the dangers of infection by the digestive tracts, the 
second is also explained. 
Prof. Nocard closes his remarks by saying: U I will keep 
loudly repeating to-morrow what I said yesterday : Mothers, 
don’t give milk to your children unless it has been thoroughly 
boiled.” 
No matter what variety of facts future experiments may de¬ 
velop, the last cry of Prof. Nocard to the Congress of London 
