Third interim report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the relations of human and animal tuberculosis. Report and Appendix.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on Tuberculosis (Human and Bovine)
Date:
1904-1913
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Third interim report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the relations of human and animal tuberculosis. Report and Appendix. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    11/112 (page 5)
    TO THE KING’S MOST EXCELLENT MA.IESTY. May it please your i\Ia]’esty, We, your Majesty’s Coininissioners, a])poiute(l to inquire and re})ort with res])ect to Tuberculosis :— 1. Whether the disease in animals and man is one and the same ; Whether animals and man can be reci].)rocally infected with it ; o. Under what conditions, if at all, the transmission of the disease from animals to man takes place, and what are the circumstances favourable or unfavourable to such transmission ; humbly submit the following Further Report containing an account of certain experiments we have carried out regarding the Infectivity of the Milk and Faeces of Naturally Infected Tuberculous Cows, that is, Cows that had contracted the disease in the ordinary way. W e wish to take this opportunity of expressing our deep sense ot the great loss caused not only to ourselves but also to the whole country by the lamented death of Sir Michael Foster, tlie late Chairman of this Commission. Since the date of our SecomI Interim Report the work of the Commission has been mainly directed to determining the special characters of the bacilli which are the cause of tuberculosis in animals other than the cow, and the relationships of the different types of tubercle bacilli which we have encountered in man and certain of the lower animals. The investigations bearing on these and other matters referred to in that Report as engaging our attention are not yet complete and the publication of the results obtained must therefore be ])Ostponed. In the meantime ^ve have thought it advisable to describe the results of a series of experiments which have been carried out by us with a view of olitaining information regarding the excretion or discharge of tubercle bacilli in the Milk and Faeces of tuberculous cattle. In our SecomI Interim Report we expressed the opinion, as a result of our investigations, that a very considerable amount of disease and loss of life, especially among infants and children, must be attriliuted to the consumption of cow’s nulk containing tubercle bacilli. Tuberculosis involving the udder is conqiaratively 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 what is the danger, if any, attaching to the milk of tidjerculous cows in which the udder presents no evidence of disease. We therefore took the opp(jrtunity of making a number of observations and experiments bearing on this point. The experiments were made with the milk of cows which had contracted the disease in the natural way. In natural tubercuhjsis in the coav, cases which show such obvious symptoms of the disease as emaciation and cough should be considered separately from the cases in which there are no such signs and in which the disease is to be recognised during life only by means of the injection of tuberculin. 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 tubei'cle bacilli. No tubercidt)sis was found exce})t in one case (Cow F) in which one (|uarter of the udder showed four small nodules. These could not possibly have been detected during life. We found that the milk of the cows obviously suffering from tuberculosis {see i\ ppendix ; Cows R, C, and F) contained tubercle bacilli n liether the milk was obtained in the ordinary n ay or was withdra^vn from the teat by means of a sterilised 31305 B