RELATION OF BOVINE TO HUMAN TUBERCULOSIS 
593 
THE RELATION OF BOVINE TO HUMAN TUBERCU¬ 
LOSIS. 
By G. A. Johnson, D. V. M., Sioux City, Iowa. 
Read before the Sioux Valley Medical Association, at Storm Lake, June, 1899. 
Mr. President, Kadies and Gentlemen : Perhaps you, 
my hearers, are not in accord with him who sang “ Tell me the 
old, old story, tell it again,” but I trust that you will bear with 
me for a short time while I give you a somewhat recent version 
of the old, old subject, tuberculosis. 
I say the old, old subject, for history from the earliest times 
to the present day is replete with accounts of a disease that to¬ 
day we term tuberculosis. 
Various terms have been used to designate the disease, and 
numerous theories have been advanced to explain its etiology 
and pathology. Often these theories confounded this with 
other and entirely dissimilar diseases, and until recently several 
of the localized manifestations of the disease were considered as 
separate and distinct diseases. 
At one period the disease would be considered contagious, 
and at another, not so. These changes in the prevailing 
theories have been much more marked and frequent among 
physicians than veterinarians. Theory could not convince the 
veterinarian that the disease was not contagious, when he saw 
it spread, gradually, yet surely, from one animal to another 
under favorable conditions. 
But it was not until the latter half of the nineteenth century 
that the etioiogy and pathology of this “ great white plague ” 
were placed upon a sound basis, through the works of Villi- 
mian and Koch. 
Notwithstanding the fact that much has been accomplished 
since these discoveries were made, there remain many phases 
of the subject to be worked out. One of the most important of 
these problems yet to be solved is the relation existing between 
human and bovine tuberculosis. And it is this phase of the 
subject that I wish to present for your consideration this evening. 
