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at once to acute tuberculosis, with the development of widespread
disease in various organs of the body, such as the lungs, spleen, liver,
lymphatic glands, &c. In some instances the disease was of remarkable
severity.
"In the case of the remaining strains, the bovine animal into
which the tuberculous material was first introduced was affected to
a less extent. The tuberculous disease was either limited to the
spot where the material was introduced (this occurred, however, in
two instances only, and these at the very beginning of our inquiry),
or spread to a variable extent from the seat of inoculation along the
lymphatic glands, with, at most, the appearance of a very small
amount of tubercle in such organs as the lungs and spleen. Yet
tuberculous material taken from the bovine animal thus affected, and
introduced successively into other bovine animals, or into guineapigs
from which bovine animals were subsequently inoculated, has
up to the present, in the case of five of these remaining strains,
ultimately given rise in the bovine animal to general tuberculosis of
an intense character ; and we are still carrying out observations in
this direction.
"We have very carefully compared the disease thus set up in the
bovine animal by material of human origin with that set up in the
bovine animal by material of bovine origin, and so far we have found
the one, both in its broad general features and in its finer histological
details, to be identical with the other. We have so far failed to
discover any character by which we could distinguish the one from
the other; and our records contain accounts of the post-mortem
examinations of bovine animals infected with tuberculous material
of human origin which might be used as typical descriptions of
ordinary bovine tuberculosis.
" The results which we have thus obtained are so striking that
we have felt it our duty to make them known without further delay
in the present interim report."
The Commissioners have deferred to a further report the
narration of the details of their experiments and a number 'of
subsidiary matters of scientific interest. But they have made this
interim report because the result at which they have arrived is one
of importance in practical administration. The result may be
expressed in a sentence, namely, " that tuberculosis of human origin
can give rise in the bovine animal to tuberculosis identical with