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81
General Conclusions:—
The general results so far attained by the inquiry may be
summed up in the following conclusions:—
1. That the effects of the bacillus of bovine and human tuberculosis
are one and the same, though wide variation in degree
of virulence may occur.
2. That the human body can be infected by bovine tuberculosis;
and the bovine body can be infected by tuberculosis of a
human source.
3. That there can be no doubt but that in a certain number of
cases the tuberculosis occurring in the human subject,
especially in children, is the direct result of the introduction
into the human body of the bacillus of bovine tuberculosis;
and there can also be no doubt that in the majority at least of
these cases the bacillus is introduced through cows' milk.
Cows' milk containing bovine tubercle bacilli is clearly a cause
of tuberculosis and of fatal tuberculosis in man.
4. That a very large proportion of tuberculosis contracted by
ingestion is due to tubercle bacilli of bovine source.
5. That a very considerable amount of disease and loss of life,
especially among the young, must be attributed to the consumption
of cows' milk containing tubercle bacilli. The
presence of tubercle bacilli in cows' milk can be detected,
though with some difficulty, if the proper means be adopted,
and such milk ought never to be used as food. There is far
less difficulty in recognising clinically that a cow is distinctly
suffering from tuberculosis, in which case she may be yielding
tuberculous milk. The milk coming from such a cow ought
not to form part of human food, and indeed ought not to be
used as food at all.
6. That our results point clearly to the necessity of measures,
more stringent than those at present enforced, being taken to
prevent the sale or the consumption of such milk.