View report page

100
ordinary bovine tuberculosis"—that is to say, the Commission
conclude that human tuberculosis and cow tuberculosis are
identical, generically one and the same disease, and intercommunicable.
Since Dr. Koch's announcement in 1901, at the British Congress
on Tuberculosis, there has been in some quarters a modification
of the practice hitherto in vogue as to the protection of milk
supplies and seizure of tuberculous meat. This Council, however,
having considered the memorandum of its Medical Officer, resolved,
on September 5th, 1901, to adopt the recommendation of the Public
Health Committee " to continue to use all the powers at their disposal
and to relax no effort whatever to protect the public against
the spread of tuberculosis by milk and meat, and that the Medical
Officer of Health and Inspectors do continue to act as heretofore."
(Minutes of Council, April to September, 1901, p. 060).
The findings of the Royal Commission, as stated above, furnish
very substantial justification, if further justification were needed,
for the action taken by this Council, which was, I believe, the first
official decision following Dr. Koch's statement. We were also the
first Local Authority to obtain a conviction and penalties in a case
of seizure of tuberculous meat. From September 5th, 1901, to
December 31st, 1904, the Public Health Department has had eleven
cases of tuberculous meat before the Police Courts, and in every
case has obtained a conviction and penalties. In two cases the
* It may be desirable to add that a preliminary report by the Tuberculosis
Commission, appointed by the German Imperial Health Office (Drs. Kossel, Weber
and Heuss), has also been made recently. As a result of experimental work, this
Commission has come to the conclusion that the bacillus of human tuberculosis can,
with few exceptions, be distinguished from that of bovine tuberculosis, as, in the
opinion of the Commission, the two organisms possess different characters. The
Commission, however, reports that bovine tuberculosis may be produced by the
human species of bacillus, and milk from tuberculous cows may set up the disease
in human beings, although such infection is somewhat rare in comparison with
infection from human source. The German Commission therefore agrees with the
British Commission that the diseases are intercommunicable.—(Tuberkalose Arbeiten
aux dem Kaiaerlichen Gesundheitsamte, 1904, 1 Heft, pp. 34-35.)