170 
LEONARD PEARSON. 
From the above statistics it can readily be seen that the sub¬ 
ject is one of great economic and national importance in Den¬ 
mark because it involves the foundation of the principal source 
of the country’s wealth and prosperity. In 1892 an appropria¬ 
tion was made by the government for the support of investiga¬ 
tions to be carried out by Professor Bang for the purpose of de¬ 
termining the most practical means to be employed in restrict¬ 
ing the ravages of this disease. The appropriations have from 
year to year been renewed ‘and increased until at present they 
amount to about $30,000 per annum. 
This government work has been conducted on such a large 
scale and in such a thoroughly careful way that the results are 
more instructive than those derived from similar experiments 
conducted elsewhere at any time. One of Professor Bang’s recent 
publications was translated by the Hatch Experiment Station 
of the Massachusetts Agricultural College and published as 
Bulletin No. 41 in August, 1896, and this Bulletin has been re¬ 
ferred to and quoted from so frequently that Prof. Bang’s name 
is now well known among readers of agricultural papers and 
those who take an interest in the discussions on tuberculosis of 
cattle. It is always possible by quoting disconnected sentences 
and isolated paragraphs to give an inaccurate and sometimes a 
very misleading impression as to the author’s opinions and state¬ 
ments, and this has occurred in reference to the writings of Pro¬ 
fessor Bang. 
The undersigned has been familiar with the work of Profes¬ 
sor Bang for a long time and has given his numerous publica¬ 
tions careful study, which has been supplemented by conversa¬ 
tion and correspondence with their author. The lessons that 
may be learned from Professor Bang’s writings and experiments 
are so important to us in this country at the present time that it 
seems well to formulate some of them and to attempt to express 
them without ambiguity. Among the most important are the 
following: ' 
Prevalence of Tuberctilosis .—It has been known for a long 
time that tuberculosis prevailed extensively among Danish 
