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6
With regard to the disease known as Tabes Mesenterica or Consumption
of the Bowels, I do not think I can do better than quote you some of the
facts mentioned by Sir Richard Thorne Thorne, in his Harben Lectures on
The Administrative Control of Tuberculosis. He says: "Take the ageperiod
15 to 45 years. The mean of the rate of deaths per million living at
that age-period in 1891-95 was 2060 from Phthisis, 2251 from all forms of
Tuberculosis, and only 44 from Tabes Mesenterica. But when we come to
ages when milk is either largely used, or forms the principal article of diet,
the matter is altogether different. The rate of 44 from Tabes Mesenterica
at ages of 15 to 45 years, rises to one of 1577 per million living under 5 years
of age; and under 1 year of age it reaches no less than 4046 per million
births."
From these figures you will see that the mortality from this disease
increases correspondingly with the increased use of milk as an article of diet,
and that the maximum is reached when milk becomes the sole article of diet.
It is not, I think, unreasonable to conclude that milk must be one of
the principal factors in the causation of the disease, but milk of itself is not
sufficient of course to bring about this state of affairs. One other important
factor is necessary, and that is, the presence of the tubercle bacillus in the
milk, and recent observations have conclusively shown that this bacillus is
present in a large amount of milk consumed in this country.
I have no doubt that, owing to the recent report of the Royal Commission
on Tuberculosis, and the work of various other agencies on the same
subject, there will be a great change in England with regard to the control
and supervision of the sale of milk, but in the meantime I would suggest
that you, as the Sanitary Authority of this District, do all in your power to
advance this work by a systematic supervision of the Dairies and Cowsheds
in the District, and by insisting upon the carrying out of the regulations
which you have laid down on the subject.
With the end in view of preventing any possible danger of infection
from the ingestion of milk, and more especially with the object of reducing
the risks of Tuberculosis to a minimum, I drew up a few simple rules for the
guidance of parents.
These were printed by you for distribution in the District, and I hope
that the bills will be re-distributed in the early summer of the year following.
The contents of the handbills are as follows: