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The glasgow conference on tuberculosis
EDITORIAL ARTICLES
killed for experimental purposes by the Corporation Tramways, was brought to Professor M'Call, and after it had been kept for two days two small pieces from it were inoculated subcutaneously in a pouch in the abdomen of a guinea-pig. On the same day plate cultures (again with glycerine-agar), were made and placed in the incubator. On the 27th April the guinea-pig died of enteritis caused by a change of food, and the post-mortem showed nothing of a glanderous nature. The plate cultures did not yield any glanders bacilli. The following is the conclusion: "The animal from whose lung the glanders nodule was taken, I should suppose, had been tested with mallein, and some time thereafter slaughtered. If so, here again the mallein test demonstrates its value and reliability as a diagnostic agent." The mallein test demonstrates its own value and reliability. and the examination of a piece of lung from an unknown horse demonstrates that mallein is a cure for glanders! ! The report contains two other "experiments," which we refrain from criticising. It concludes with the intimation that the inquiry is being prosecuted, and that meanwhile Professor M'CaH does not feel inclined to suggest to the Local Authority that any alteration be made in their line of procedure in dealing with outbreaks of glanders. It cannot be said that the results achieved up to the present time are such as to tickle expectation, and we hope the Local Authority of Glasgow will meanwhile study the object lesson which the experience of the Corporation Tramways has gratuitously provided for them.
THE GLASGOW CONFERENCE ON TUBERCULOSIS.
THE conference of Local Authorities in Scotland which met in Glasgow in the month of April last to discuss the prevention of tuberculosis in its relation to meat and milk supply may be hailed as an indication that public health authorities are anxious to take every precaution allowed by law to diminish the ravages of tuberculosis in the human race. We are not among those who think that infection through the meat and milk of tuberculous animals is one of the main causes of the disease in man. In a sense there are no two main causes of human tuberculosis, ju.st as there is only one main cause of bovine tuberculosis. Tlte main cause of the disease in man is infection from tuberculous individuals of his own species, and it may be doubted whether any sanitary measures or precautions which do not interfere with that source of the disease will sensibly affect the returns of the Registrar General under the head of tuberculosis. We do not say this with any intention to belittle the importance of the Glasgow conference, for the Glasgow municipal authorities, to whom the Conference owed its inception, are not open to the re-
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EDITORIAL ARTICLES.
proach that they have been forgetful of the main cause of human consumption. The Lord Provost, in his opening address, rightly said that the prevention of tuberculosis is a larger subject than the elimination of tuberculous meat and milk, and his references to the necessity for preventing overcrowding, and for effecting improvements in the ventilation, drainin g, and lighting of human habitations, are a recognition of the fact that tuberculosis is a disease spreading from man to man by contagion. The radical method of checking the ravages of tuberculosis among human beings would be to treat it as we do most of the other serious contagious diseases, that is to say, by exercising control over the movements and associations of persons suffering from it. But that must in the meantime be dismissed as impracticable, since public opinion, in opposition to which no legislation is possible, will not yet tolerate even notification, not to speak of anything approaching isolation. Human bein gs far gone in consumption may obtrude themselves in theatres,. churches, and other public places, to the danger of the healthy lieges, and children manifestly tuberculous are still allowed to attend school and spread the disease to their classmates. The consumptive poor in the last stages of the disease may insist upon remaining in their own over-crowded houses, a nd distributing infective sputum all around them, to the imminent danger of their own families. As long as these things are allowed tuberculosis will continue to exact a heavy toll of the human race. Meanwhile the public must be educated, in the hope that voluntary precautions suggested by a fuller knowledge of the cause of the disease may do something to reduce its ravages. The greater activity that is being displayed in the direction of stopping the infection from meat and milk may be said to be disproportionate to the importance of this source of the disease, but it is explained by the fact that the difficulties in the way of safeguarding the community from tubercle bacilli in meat and milk are small compared with those that beset the arrest of infection between man and man. Besides, the law has already placed in the hands of public health authorities weapons that may be used with some effect against the bovine source of the infection, and the Glasgow conference was mainly a discussion regarding the methods by which these weapons can be most effectively used. Nothing but good can come from such discussion, and we can only hope that the enlightened views which were expressed by most of the delegates will obtain the pUblicity which they deserve. and that rural and urban authorities will cooperate heartily in an endeavour to purge the meat and milk supply from the taint of tubercle bacilli.
killed for experimental purposes by the Corporation Tramways, was brought to Professor M'Call, and after it had been kept for two days two small pieces from it were inoculated subcutaneously in a pouch in the abdomen of a guinea-pig. On the same day plate cultures (again with glycerine-agar), were made and placed in the incubator. On the 27th April the guinea-pig died of enteritis caused by a change of food, and the post-mortem showed nothing of a glanderous nature. The plate cultures did not yield any glanders bacilli. The following is the conclusion: "The animal from whose lung the glanders nodule was taken, I should suppose, had been tested with mallein, and some time thereafter slaughtered. If so, here again the mallein test demonstrates its value and reliability as a diagnostic agent." The mallein test demonstrates its own value and reliability. and the examination of a piece of lung from an unknown horse demonstrates that mallein is a cure for glanders! ! The report contains two other "experiments," which we refrain from criticising. It concludes with the intimation that the inquiry is being prosecuted, and that meanwhile Professor M'CaH does not feel inclined to suggest to the Local Authority that any alteration be made in their line of procedure in dealing with outbreaks of glanders. It cannot be said that the results achieved up to the present time are such as to tickle expectation, and we hope the Local Authority of Glasgow will meanwhile study the object lesson which the experience of the Corporation Tramways has gratuitously provided for them.
THE GLASGOW CONFERENCE ON TUBERCULOSIS.
THE conference of Local Authorities in Scotland which met in Glasgow in the month of April last to discuss the prevention of tuberculosis in its relation to meat and milk supply may be hailed as an indication that public health authorities are anxious to take every precaution allowed by law to diminish the ravages of tuberculosis in the human race. We are not among those who think that infection through the meat and milk of tuberculous animals is one of the main causes of the disease in man. In a sense there are no two main causes of human tuberculosis, ju.st as there is only one main cause of bovine tuberculosis. Tlte main cause of the disease in man is infection from tuberculous individuals of his own species, and it may be doubted whether any sanitary measures or precautions which do not interfere with that source of the disease will sensibly affect the returns of the Registrar General under the head of tuberculosis. We do not say this with any intention to belittle the importance of the Glasgow conference, for the Glasgow municipal authorities, to whom the Conference owed its inception, are not open to the re-
17 0
EDITORIAL ARTICLES.
proach that they have been forgetful of the main cause of human consumption. The Lord Provost, in his opening address, rightly said that the prevention of tuberculosis is a larger subject than the elimination of tuberculous meat and milk, and his references to the necessity for preventing overcrowding, and for effecting improvements in the ventilation, drainin g, and lighting of human habitations, are a recognition of the fact that tuberculosis is a disease spreading from man to man by contagion. The radical method of checking the ravages of tuberculosis among human beings would be to treat it as we do most of the other serious contagious diseases, that is to say, by exercising control over the movements and associations of persons suffering from it. But that must in the meantime be dismissed as impracticable, since public opinion, in opposition to which no legislation is possible, will not yet tolerate even notification, not to speak of anything approaching isolation. Human bein gs far gone in consumption may obtrude themselves in theatres,. churches, and other public places, to the danger of the healthy lieges, and children manifestly tuberculous are still allowed to attend school and spread the disease to their classmates. The consumptive poor in the last stages of the disease may insist upon remaining in their own over-crowded houses, a nd distributing infective sputum all around them, to the imminent danger of their own families. As long as these things are allowed tuberculosis will continue to exact a heavy toll of the human race. Meanwhile the public must be educated, in the hope that voluntary precautions suggested by a fuller knowledge of the cause of the disease may do something to reduce its ravages. The greater activity that is being displayed in the direction of stopping the infection from meat and milk may be said to be disproportionate to the importance of this source of the disease, but it is explained by the fact that the difficulties in the way of safeguarding the community from tubercle bacilli in meat and milk are small compared with those that beset the arrest of infection between man and man. Besides, the law has already placed in the hands of public health authorities weapons that may be used with some effect against the bovine source of the infection, and the Glasgow conference was mainly a discussion regarding the methods by which these weapons can be most effectively used. Nothing but good can come from such discussion, and we can only hope that the enlightened views which were expressed by most of the delegates will obtain the pUblicity which they deserve. and that rural and urban authorities will cooperate heartily in an endeavour to purge the meat and milk supply from the taint of tubercle bacilli.