The Dominion. TUESDAY, AUGUST 22, 1911. THE TUBERCULOSIS COMMISSION.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1212, 22 August 1911, Page 4

The Dominion. TUESDAY, AUGUST 22, 1911. THE TUBERCULOSIS COMMISSION.

The final report of the British Royal Commission on Tuberculosis, o£ which we print a summary in another column to-day, is a document the enormous importance 'of which hardly requires to be pointed out. It represents almost the sum of human knowledge concerning a disease that is a subject of anxiety in almost every country of the earth; and its broad lessons arc for the present hardly more important to the science of medicine than to the ordinary public and to the bodies of local and general government. Towards the end of last centurv the current theory was that the bacillus of tubercle, from whatever animal derived, was an efficient cause of human tuberculosis, but then Professor Koch began, and in subsequent years continued, to expound the new theory, based upon experiments he had. made, that human beings were practically proof against bovine infection. One of the immediate results of Professor Koch's statements was an agitation in the milk and meattrades for the removal of the restrictive regulations imposed upon them. In order to settle the question the Government in 1001 set up a Eoyal whicii has carried on its investigations for ten years past tin farms specially lent by Lord Hlyth. An interim report issued in 1001 stated that bacilli derived from the lesions of certain cases of human tuberculosis had produced in cattle a disease indistinguishable from bovine tuberculosis—a destructive blow at the Koch theory. A second interim report was issued of 1907, and showed that fatal cases of human tuberculosis had proved to be due to the typical bovine tubercle bacillus. These cases, however, were all cases of abdominal tuberculosis in infants and children.

The questions to be answered by the Commission were:

1. Whether the disease in animals and man is ono and the same.

2. Whether animals and man can be reciprocally infected with it.

3. Under what conditions, if at all, the transmission of tho discaso from animals to man takes place, and what are the circumstances favourable or unfavourable to such transmission.

The answer given in the report to the first question is practically afiirmativc, and to the second plainly affirmative. The third question is not definitely answered, further research being necessary. It was proved by the multitudinous and elaborate experiments that were made tlmfc fatal cases of phthisis (pulmonary tuberculosis, or consumption) in adult man may be, causcd by the typical bovine tuberculosis. For all practical purposes this fact, and tlie second fact, that "a considerable amount of the tuberculosis of childhood is to be ascribed to infection with bacilli of tho bovine type, transmitted to children ; rr meals consisting largely of the milk of the cow," [are large enough and definite enough to make a firm basis for the consideration of tuberculosis from the public health point of view. In answering the third question tlie Commission points out (hat the. susceptibility of other animals to infection by the bovine bacillus is a source of danger to man. The pig, for example, is a staple food animal, and the bovine tubercle produces in him the progressive lesions of the natural disease. While in the majority of the fatal cases of tuberculosis in adults investigated most of them were refer-

able to human' bacilli, the position is different in regard to young children. Half the eases of latal abdominal tuberculosis in children were due solely to bovine infection.

The geat'ral conclusion of the Commission is that it is necessary to tak-3 administrative measures for OotainLig security against the transmission of bovine tubercle bacilli by menus of food. For legislators the first question arisufg out of the report should be something like this: Would it bo wise, in view of the fact that the clear truths established by the Commission serve to emphasise the need for further research, to conclude without further inquiry that the major portion of the money expended in fighting consumption should continue to be spent upon sanatoria ? Is it not possible that further research will reveal direct bovine infection as the main propeller of the disease through the generations? If so, then a long view would require that a considerable | share of the money and energy nowspent in ''curative'' methods be diverted to the attack upon the bovine i side. Comment has been made in ' England upon the fact that Mi:. Johk Blt.ns, for some reason, has never shown any cordiality towards the Commission. It is said that he would have any further investigation carried cut bv the already busy officers of his Department, and that, quite, in the spirit of most modern -Radical "reformers," he has made up his mind that tuberculosis can be dealt with "by a few Departmental regulations, coupled with a judicious extension of a system of townplanning." "Reformers" of the class mentioned will always, as New Zcalanders will hardly need to bo told, prefer what is showy to what is dull and sober. Patient experiments upon cows make nothing like the topic for popular speeches that is madp by "garden cities" ; and therein is the danger to a wise, far-sighted and statesmanlike treatment of the probI lein in this or any other country.