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44
among the poor, and measures for its reduction must also include
those which afford assistance, not only to the sufferer, but often to
the families which are dependent upon him.
The notifications under the Public Health Tuberculosis Regulations
of 1908 represent the thin end of the wedge of the general
compulsory notification of this disease. During the year I received
25 certificates of Consumption amongst paupers under these Regulations.
A serious! omission in these certificates is the failure to record
the date of the patient's admission to Poor Law Institutions.
The Royal Commission which was appointed in 1901 to inquire
into the relations of human and animal tuberculosis has issued its
Third Interim Report, dated January, 1909.
The same Commissioners were responsible for the Second Interim
Report which appeared in 1907 and which expressed the conviction
that human beings, and especially children, can be infected with
bovine tuberculosis, and that in the majority of such cases the
infection takes place through the medium of cow's milk.
Tuberculosis involving the udder is comparatively common in
cows, and in such cases their milk always contains tubercle bacilli,
and is therefore dangerous for human beings consuming it. It was,
however, undecided as to what is the danger attaching to milk
of tuberculous cows in which the udder presents no evidence of
disease, and the Royal Commission addressed itself to this subject.
None of the cows investigated showed any sign of disease of the
udder during life, and in all, after slaughtering, the udder was carefully
examined for tuberculous lesions and tubercle bacilli. No
tuberculosis was found except in one case (Cow F) in which one
quarter of the udder showed four small nodules. These could not
possibly have been detected during life.