HUMAN AND ANIMAL TUBERCULOSIS.
FEW reports have evoked greater interest than that of the Royal Commission on Tuberculosis which receives lengthy editorial comment in a recent issue of the Lancet, Feb. 9, 1907. The commission has found that "marked differences are met with between bovine tuberculosis and certain strains of human tuberculosis in respect of their infective ability to certain lower animals (in particular to calves); but practically speaking, the difference, where it exists, is always in one direction; whatever the animal in question, the tubercle of bovine origin has the greater virulence. The experiments have extended to anthropoid apes which have been found readily susceptible to bovine infection. No reason has been shown for inferring that man alone possesses a specially lessened susceptibility to tuberculosis of bovine origin." The writer in the Lancet further says that "we are forced to conclude that it is more than ever necessary to take active steps to minimize the risk which the public runs from tuberculous food and tuberculous milk. We can not be content to tell the public to boil or sterilize all its milk. We know from experience the limited utility of such advice. We want milk free from tuberculous infection as its source." This want, like many other human desires, is at present somewhat difficult of realization. What we want, and can get, is milk free from tuberculous infection—at its source if possible, but before it is delivered to the consumer at all events. The finding of the Royal Commission on Tuberculosis emphasizes the danger of tuberculous milk and the necessity of pasteurization of all milk derived from suspicious sources.—Medical Record.