Report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the administrative procedures for controlling danger to man through the use as food of the meat and milk of tuberculous animals.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on Tuberculosis.
Date:
1898
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Credit: Report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the administrative procedures for controlling danger to man through the use as food of the meat and milk of tuberculous animals. 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.

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    Dairy Company in London and the Glynde Dairy Company in Sussex to inspect their establishments. We also visited cowsheds, dairies, and milkshops in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast, and Dublin. 9. In order, further, to compare continental practice with that prevailing in this country, three of Your Majesty's Commissioners, accompanied by the Secretary and by Professor J. McFadyean, Principal of the Royal Veterinary College, Camden Town, visited various towns and farms in Belgium, Germany, and Denmark. In every instance the utmost desire was displayed by the officials, both of the various States and of the municipalities, to facilitate our observations. Appendix A. The report of this tour and the information collected therein will be found printed in the Appendix to the evidence. 10. The subject of our inquiry naturally divides itself into two main branches, namely, the prevention of infection of human beings (a) from the consumption of meat affected with tuberculosis, and (b) from the consumption of milk drawn from tuberculous cows. 11. We have had before us the unanimous finding of the Royal Commission on Tuberculosis which reported in 1895, to the effect that tuberculous disease in bovine and other animals is identical with that in the human subject, and that it is Beport, par, communicable from one to the other, though the manifestation of the disease differs 22- in some respects in the human subject from that in the lower animals. We have lb 'par'36* also considered their finding, that any person who takes tuberculous matter into the body as food incurs risk of acquiring tuberculous disease. Nothing that has come before us in the course of our inquiry has raised any doubt in our minds as to the accuracy of this opinion. At the same time, we think that there has been a tendency in some minds to exaggerate the extent of the risk arising from meat. Appendix C, 12. Dr. Tatham, Superintendent of Statistics in the General Register Office, pp. 355-64. placed before us some very valuable statistics, showing the rates of mortality in England and Wales from tuberculosis in its various forms at different periods between 1851 and 1895, the several rates being calculated for both se^es and at different age-periods. We felt that, were it possible to derive any definite opinion from these statistics, it would have a special significance in view of the large increase which is known to have taken place during the last 30 years, at least, in the consumption of meat and milk per head of the population. Generally speaking, these statistics show that during the 45 years referred to there has been a substantial and steady diminution in the mortality attributed to tuberculosis; but at the same time, the true significance of the alteration of the rates of mortality as time has gone on is to an important extent obscured by increasing accuracy of diagnosis, by changes in nomenclature, and by the different extent to which deaths have been medically certified during the 45 years in question. These circumstances notably affect two periods of life which have important interest in relation to our inquiry. Thus, tubercular affection of the lungs, which has been a much more frequent cause of death in the adult than in any other period of life, is now less conspicuous than formerly as .a cause of death largely by reason of the disuse of such terms as ' con- sumption ' and ' decline' in registering deaths from different wasting diseases. So. too, the number of deaths due to the tuberculosis of infancy, especially tubercular affection of the digestive tract and of the membranes of the brain, has diminished. But, here again, there has been ambiguity of nomenclature. Thus the term 'tabes mesenterica' has been made to include diseases other than tuberculosis, when these diseases have been accompanied with wasting, and notably with diarrhoea, during infancy and childhood; and much that was formerly referred vaguely to tuber- culosis or scrofula is now registered as either hydrocephalus or tubercular meningitis. Furthermore, a steady and real diminution of death from tubercular diseases in general, which has been in progress at both periods of life referred to as a result of the improved conditions of life which have been brought about by measures tending to promote public health, goes largely to mask any increase of mortality due to special causes of tuberculosis affecting one or another age-period. For these reasons no really accurate and trustworthy statistical data are available as to the influence of the meat or milk of tuberculous animals when used as food for adults or for infants and young children respectively. Whilst, however, this is the case, Dr. Tatham stated to us that in his judgment the value of the vital statistics which he laid before us is not entirely destroyed for the purposes of comparing one term of years with another. We note, therefore, with satisfaction, that death from tubercular disease, in all its forms and at all