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44
" 11. We have had before us the unanimous finding of the Royal
Commission on tuberculosis, which reported in 1895 to the effect
that tuberculous disease in bovine and other animals is identical
with that in the human subject, and that it is communicable from
one to the other, though the manifestation of the disease differs in
some respects in the human subject from that in the lower animals.
We have also considered their finding that " Any person who takes
tuberculous matter into the body as food incurs risk of acquiring
tuberculous disease." Nothing that has come before us in the course
of our inquiry has raised any doubt in our minds as to the accuracy
of this opinion. At the same time we think that there has been a
tendency in some minds to exaggerate the extent of the risk arising
from meat."
On page 12 the Commission reports :—
Milk Supply.
" 36. Whatever degree of danger may be incurred by the consump
tion of the flesh of tuberculous animals (and we have already stated
our belief that the tendency in this country has been rather to
exaggerate this than to underrate it), there can be little doubt that
the corresponding danger in respect of milk supply is a far greater
one."
" On this point the opinion of the previous Royal Commission on
tuberculosis was emphatic. " No doubt the largest part of the
tuberculosis which man obtains through his food is by means of milk
containing tuberculous matter."
" In Great Britain and Ireland meat, as a rule, is cooked before it is
eaten, to an extent which goes largely to destroy infective matter.
Milk, on the other hand, is largely consumed in a raw state,
especially by children, and there exists a general distaste for cooked
milk as a beverage. Among most continental nations the practice is
to some extent the opposite of this, and large quantities of meat,
especially in the various forms of sausages are consumed absolutely