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body, and the burial of such a carcase, or the dissolution of an unburied carcase left where the animal died, adds an enormous number of spores to the ground. Here putrefaction cannot be relied upon to render the carcase innocuous, and it is therefore indicated to bury animals dead of black-quarter deeply in some place to which cattle and sheep will not afterwards have access.

Finally, it may be observed that improvement of the land must apparently be reckoned among the means of preventing black-quarter. Probably the most important of such improvements is draining, but ploughing and crop-growing, as opposed to leaving the land under permanent pasture, may also act beneficially. It is at any rate certain that black-quarter is now an almost unknown disease in many districts where it was at one time very prevalent, and that its decline followed the introduction of better methods of farming.

DESCRIPTION OF PLATE II.

Fig. I. Black-quarter bacilli (non·sporulating) from a calf (x 750). Figs. 2 and 3. Ditto (x 1000). Fig 4. Black-quarter bacilli from a calf (x 750). The great majority of

the bacilli are sporulating. Fig. 5. Section from a black-quarter tumour in a calf (x 60); a, muscular

fibres involved in a srriall hremorrhage; b, extravasated blood; c, inflam­matory exudate.

Fig. 6. Another field in the same preparation as Fig. 5, a, a, a, gas-con­taitling cavities; b, connective tissue infiltrated with blood; c, muscular fibres.

E D ITO R I A L ART I C L E S. --0--

REPORT OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON TUBERCULOSIS

SINCE the date of our last issue the Royal Commission which was appointed in July I896 to inquire further into the subject of tubercu­losis has issued its Report. At a later part of this number we have printed the series of recommendations with which the Report con­cludes, and we propose here to consider some of these, and the reasons for them which are embodied in the Report.

It may be well to recall the fact that this is the third occasion on which the subject of tuberculosis has been considered by a Depart­mental Committee or a Royal Commission. In April I888 a Departmental Committee was appointed to inquire into pleuro­pneumonia and tuberculosis, and it issued its report in the latter part of the same year. In I890 the first Royal Commission on tubercu­losis was appointed" to inquire and report what is the effect, if any, of food derived from tuberculous animals on human health; and if prejudicial, what are the circumstances and conditions with regard to

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the tuberculosis in the animal which produce that effect upon man. This commission devoted nearly five years to the collection of ex­perimental and other evidence, and issued its report in April 1895. The Royal Commission whose Report we have now to consider was appointed in July 1896, "to inquire and report what adminis­trative procedures are available and would be desirable for controlling the danger to man through the use as food of the meat and milk of tuberculous animals, and what are the considerations which should govern the action of the responsible authorities in condemning for the purposes of food supplies, animals, carcases, or meat exhibiting any stage of tuberculosis."

The evidence taken by the Commission, relates (a) to the preva­lence of tuberculosis among dairy stock and cattle and certain other animals destined for food in the United Kingdom; (b) to the sanitary conditions under which such animals are kept; (c) to the various practices governing the inspection of meat and the control of milk offered for sale, the method under which, and the extent to which, these are adopted in various districts; and (d ) to the alteration in the existing laws, or their administration, advocated by the representatives of various interests affected. Some evidence was also taken regard­ing the prevalence of tuberculosis among human beings in this country, in order to see whether any connection could be traced between that and the increased consumption of meat and milk by the population.

Statistics submitted by Dr Tatham, Superintendent of Statistics in the General Register Office, showed that between 185 I and 1895 there has been a substantial and steady diminution in the mortality attributed to tuberculosis. Unfortunately, it is impossible to accept these statistics as affording a perfectly accurate measure of the prevalence of tuberculosis during the period to which they relate, inasmuch as increasing accuracy of diagnosis, changes in nomen­clature, and the different extent to which deaths have been medically certified during the period, have tended to affect the figures. But, while making allowance for this, and recognising the impossibility of obtaining really accurate and trustworthy statistical data as to the influence of the meat or milk of tuberculous animals when used for human food, the Commissoners had to note with satisfaction that death from tubercular disease in all its forms and at all ages has steadily fallen from 3483 per million in 1851-60 to 2 I22 during 1891-95, and that at every age-period for which statistics are avail­able there has al~o been a decrease, sometimes of a very substantial character. Taking the age-period fifteen to forty-five years as the period of life when meat form s a very prominent article of diet, it is found that the diminution of death from tubercular disease has ranged from 52'8 per cent. at the age-period fifteen to twenty years, to 3o'8 per cent. at the age period thirty-five to forty-five years.

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These figures do not support the case of those who have been maintaining that "human tuberculosis frequently comes from the butcher's stall." Indeed, when one reflects that during the last half century there has been a great increase in the consumption of meat per head of the population in this country, and that there are grounds for supposing that tuberculosis has been increasing rather than diminishing among the animals slaughtered for food purposes, it is impossible to draw from the figures quoted any other conclusiorl than that the use of the flesh of tuberculous animals for human food is not a factor of any great importance in the etiology of human tu berculosis.

But Dr Tatham's statistics bring to light a very significant fact relating to the decline of tubercular disease among young children. They show that while during the age-period 0-5 years, there has been a reduction in death from tubercular disease in all forms from 5764 per million at that age in 1851-60 to 4155 in 1891-95, equal to a diminu­tion of 27·9 per cent., the death-rate from tabes mesenterica during the same period has fallen only 3 per cent. The significance of these figures lies in the fact that the cases of tuberculosis returned under the head of tabes mesenterica are mainly those in which infection has taken place by way of the alimentary canal. The Commissioners in quoting these figures observe that the term tabes mesenterica has always comprised and still comprises a proportion of cases that are not tuberculous in their nature, but they regard it as a noteworthy fact that the rate of mortality from tabes mesenterica, which, more than any other, represents tuberculosis in infancy, has signally failed to undergo any considerable diminution during the period of sanitary progress which has been associated with such substantial diminution of death from tubercular affection at all ages in England and Wales, and that this result has coincided in point of time with a large increase in the consumption of milk.

Regarding the prevalence of tuberculosis among British and Irish agricultural stock some evidence was laid before the Commission, but hardly sufficient to enable anyone to form a very confident estimate as to the exact proportion of animals affected by the disease. The Report states that overwhelming evidence proved the greater preval­ence of tuberculosis among dairy stock than among bullocks or heifers, and this is ascribed to the closer confinement of cows, to their greater average age, and to the drain on them caused by milking. The Com­missioners regard the prevalence of tuberculosis among high-class pedigree stock as a serious feature of the subject, and they seek an explanation of it not in any greater predisposition to the disease, but mainly in the circumstance that pedigree cows, O\dng to their greater value, are retained to a greater age for breeding purposes, while their offspring are commonly subjected to more artificial treatment than less valuable stock. We do not think that there is sufficient justification

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for these views, at least in so far as they imply that tuberculosis is more prevalent among high-class pedigree cows kept for breeding purposes than among ordinary milking stock. Indeed, we are inclined to think that the disease is considerably more prevalent amorig cows of the latter class than among those of our best pedigree stocks, but it must be admitted that the available information on this head is decidedly too meagre to enable one to institute a comparison of any great value.

The Commissioners do not share the opinion that the breed or race has much to do with liability to tubercular disease, and they note that the disease is almost unknown among cows kept chiefly in the open air, even in the case of breeds, such as those of Jersey and Finland, that evince a ready susceptibility when brought within reach of infection. \Vith this view we cordially agree, and also with the estimate which the Commissioners formed of the practical importance of the hereditary transmission of tuberculosis. They consider that even on the estimate that three or four calves per thousand (which is the highest justified by evidence) are born tuberculous, the con­genital transmission of the disease may be disregarded in practice. They consider that the main risk in breeding from tuberculous parents comes into operation after the birth of the calf, and that this should be obviated by boiling the milk before giving it to the calves. We do not believe that in this country the proportion of congenital tuberculosis among calves is as high as three or four per thousand, but even that estimate would fail to invest the congenital method of transmission with any practical importance when one has to consider methods for combating the disease. It must be remembered that in all probability a considerable proportion of the calves that are born tuberculous succumb to the disease soon after birth. Furthermore, the owner of a valuable cow that has reacted to tuberculin but gives no other evidence of being affected with the disease may calculate that if he breeds from her the chances are three hundred to one against her calf being born tuberculous, and when the calf is born he can ascertain by the tuberculin test whether it is tuberculous or not.

It need hardly be said that all the evidence laid before the Commission was not to this effect. Some of the witnesses very strongly deprecated breeding from tuberculous animals, not on the ground of post-partu11l risk of infection, but because they attached a great importance to the intra-uterine transmission of the disease itself, or to the hereditary transmission of a special susceptibility to infection. But no stronger justification for these views was forth­coming than that they were widely held by breeders, and apparently those who put them forward entirely overlooked the fact that in the meantime there is no alternative to breeding from tuberculous cows save the sacrifice of from 30 to 40 per cent. of the breeding stock in this country.

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On the question of the danger which arises to human beings from the fact that tuberculosis is a common disease among cattle slaughtered for the food of man, the views enunciated by the most recent Royal Commission are to a large extent reassuring, both to the general public and to farmers and butchers. The Report endorses the finding of the first Royal Commission, that "any person who takes tuberculous mattcr into the body as food incurs risk of acquiring tubercular disease," but it records the opinion that the risk to the human subject of acquiring tuberculosis through meat has been greatly over-estimated. The members of the second Commission could --find no indication of this danger in the mortality returns already quoted, and the only evidence pointing to such a danger with which they were acquainted-namely the results of certain artificially contrived infcctions of meat made at the instance of the previous Commission-was the outcome of deliberately contrived laboratory experiments, admittedly carried out under methods involving a risk greater than any that would arise in ordinary trade procedures. The Commissioners, while thus refusing to adopt the extreme views re­garding the danger associated with the sale of the flesh of tuberculous animals which have at times been put forward both in this country and abroad, do not deny that some danger of human beings becom­ing infected through tuberculous meat actually exists. The danger, they think, has been exaggerated or over-estimated, with the result that in some places a good deal of meat has been needlessly con­demned. They are not prepared to recommend that indiscriminate traffic in tuberculous meat should be permitted, or that inspection should be more lax than it is at present. On the contrary, they think that inspection of meat as to its fitness for human food should be general, and that some general principles for the guidance of meat inspectors in dealing with the carcases of tuberculous animals should be authoritatively laid down. "Chaos is the only word to express the absence of system in the inspection and seizure of tuberculous meat." The Commissioners found that the stringency of the principles governing the condemnation of carcases in different places varied in the most extraordinary way, apparently according to the whim of the medical officer or veterinary inspector. The absurdity of this hap­hazard method of conducting meat inspection has on several occasions been pointed out in these columns, and we heartily welcome the prospect of a more rational system.

The Report of the Royal Commission says that such a stage of experience and knowledge has been attained as to the nature of tuberculosis and the effect of tuberculous meat upon the human consumer, as to enable a uniform standard to be prescribed for the guidance of meat inspectors, and among its recommendations there is embodied a sketch of the principles which, in the opinion of the Commissioners, should be observed in judging the car cases of tuber

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culous animals as to their fitness or unfitness for human food. We do not hesitate to say that this is one of the most important of the recommendations made in the Report. It is enunciated with all the authority of the recent Royal Commission, and it may also be said to have the sanction of the previous Commission, since it discriminates between the degrees of tuberculosis that render flesh dangerous or leave it wholesome, according to the principles laid down in the Report of that Commission. It is also worthy of mention, as adding to the weight of the recommendation, that it is subscribed to by two eminent medical authorities, Sir Richard Thorne, Medical Officer to the Local Government Board, and Dr Shirley Murphy, Medical Officer of Health to the London County Council. Jt need hardly be said that this recommendation has no legal force, but, nevertheless, it ought in our opinion to be everywhere adopted by meat inspectors as their guiding principle in dealing with the carcases of tuberculous animals, at least pending legislation on the subject, or the issue of some more authoritative regulation. A meat inspector who can show that his decision with reference to any given carcase is in conformity with the principles of this recommendation need not fear to have his action reviewed in a court of law. On the other hand, the recommendation ought to immediately suffice to put a stop to the unjustifiable destruc­tion of the carcases of animals on the ground that some slighttu berculous lesion has been found in some of the internal organs or their lymphatic glands. The recommendation ought therefore to be welcomed by the butchers, who in the past have had good grounds for irritation and dissatisfaction owing to the utter want of uniformity in the matter of condemning or passing the carcases of tuberculous animals. It is to be hoped that they will acquiesce in all condemnations that do not violate the principles laid down in the Report of the Royal Commission, and they will have themselves to blame if they submit to the confisca­tion of carcases which, judged by these principles, are not unwhole­some.

The Report of the Royal Commission rightly recognises that if there is any danger to man from the common occurrence of tubercu­losis among animals killed for human food, that danger is not ade­quately met by merely prescribing a set of rules for the guidance of meat inspectors. If the danger exists it can only be adequately met by bringing into play some machinery that will insure the inspection of all animals slaughtered for food purposes. In other words, there must be a general system of meat inspection, and that implies the abolition of private and the erection of public slaughter-houses. The Commissioners have given slaughter-house reform a foremost place in their recommendations, and one can only hope that in the near future legislative effect will be given to their views on this matter. I t is perfectly certain that until then the danger of human beings con­tracting tuberculosis through meat cannot be dealt with except in a

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fragmentary and totally inadequate way. And it ought not to be forgotten that there are other morbid conditions besides tuberculosis which render the flesh of animals dangerous, and which therefore make it necessary to insist upon the inspection of all animals slaughtered for the food of man.

It will be observed that the Commissioners recommend that in future no person be permitted to act as a meat inspector until he has passed a qualifying examination on specified subjects. In the body of the report it is stated that a number of witnesses expressed the opinion that veterinary inspectors alone should be employed as meat inspectors, and that the Commissioners are satisfied that some patho­logical training is the proper basis upon which to build the knowledge required by a meat inspector. Furthermore, they consider that, wherever practicable, veterinary surgeons thus educated should be employed as meat inspectors. One wonders where· the places are, or what are the circumstances, in which the employment of veterinary surgeons as meat inspectors is not practicable. The Commissioners surely cannot mean that in their view the public interests would be best served by having veterinary surgeons as meat inspectors, but that Great Britain is the only European country that cannot afford to pay for their services. The only meat inspection brought under the notice of the Commissioners in this country for which they have a word of commendation was that which they witnessed at Edinburgh, where four out of the six inspectors are veterinary surgeons. And if Edinburgh can afford to employ veterinary surgeons in the inspection of meat, what are the circumstances that compel Glasgow and Liver­pool to be content with the services of policemen and butchers, and Battersea with plumbers and carpenters, for the same kind of work? The answer is that in these places there is no serious inspection of meat-at least nothing that affords any adequate protection to the ratepayers.

The qualifying examination which, under the recommendation of the Royal Commission, future meat inspectors must pass, is, appar­ently, to comprise a comprehensive knowledge of veterinary anatomy, physiology, and pathology, for, of course, that is what is meant by "the names and situations of the organs of the body;" the" signs of health and disease in animals destined for food, both when alive and after slaughter;" and" the appearance and character of fresh meat, organs, fat, and blood, and the conditions rendering them, or prepara­tions from them, fit for human food." If ever such an examination is instituted and seriously conducted, it is not likely to be passed by those who have not had a veterinary training.

On the question of compensation to owners of carcases condemned on account of tuberculosis, the Commissioners were unable to agree. Four of them arrived at the conclusion that no claim for compensa­tion in such circumstances had been made out, and the remaining

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three thought that compensation ought to be awarded. The grounds on which the opinion adverse to compensation was founded were­(I) That the risk of seizure and condemnation on account of tuber­culosis is one that is fully recognised in the trade, and necessarily affects the price paid for the living animal; (2) that even in the past the loss thrown on butchers has not been so great as has often been represented; (3) that the loss will be smaller in the future if effect be given to the recommendations made by the Commission with re­gard to the extent of disease justifying seizure; and (4) that evidence laid before the Commission had convinced them that the losses incurred by seizure can best be met by the system of mutual insurance.

The Commissioners who are in favour of compensation for con­demned carcases admit that it cannot be claimed on the ground of any analogy with that which is granted in the case of such diseases as pleuro-pneumonia and swine fever, because in the seizure of tuberculous carcases there has neither been notification nor com­pulsory slaughter. Nevertheless, they think that a claim for ex­ceptional dealing here arises from the fact that the butcher is absolutely irresponsible for the condition that entails condemnation, and because it does not appear to be possible to bring the loss home to the farmer or grazier. This, of course, assumes that the danger of an apparently healthy animal turning out to be extensively tuber­culous is not taken into consideration by the butcher, for, if it is, he obviously incurs no loss. And we find it difficult to see why, where condemnation of carcases is a frequent occurrence, butchers should fly in the face of sound commercial principles, and offer more for the live animal than past experience justifies. At any rate it is clear that if they do they have no well-founded claim to compensa­tion. It is an entire misrepresentation of the circumstances when the butcher demands compensation because his "good carcase" has been condemned in the public interest. The accurate statement of the case is, that he has come into the possession of an article which he supposed to be good, but which is valueless for the purpose to which he intended to put it, or which cannot be put to that purpose without doing injury to others. To admit the claim for compensa­tion in these circumstances would be to sanction quite a new principle, and one that would probably prove very expensive, for under it not only tuberculosis but almost every other morbid con­dition for which the flesh of slaughtered animals has to be condemned would entitle the butcher to reimbursement.

We entirely agree with the opinion that if there is any loss it ought to fall on the breeder or feeder who owned the animal at the time when it contracted the disease, and it is a pity that, owing to the complicated nature of the cattle trade, and the repeated sales that often take place between the time when the animal leaves the

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farm and arrives in the .slaughter-house, it is well-nigh impossible to place the penalty on the right shoulders. I t is no longer possible to regard the prevalence of tuberculosis in a herd as a pure mis­fortune, in the, sense that human foresight is powerless to prevent the disease or stamp it out; and to grant compensation for the con­demnation of tuberculous carcases seized in slaughter-houses would inevitably tend to make farmers negligent in the exercise of measures of prevention.

The chorus of disapproval with which the terms of the Report of the Royal Commission have been met by some representatives of the farmer's and butcher's interests would almost justify the belief that the members of these callings consider the granting of compensation for the seizure of carcases the only thing necessary to settle the tuberculosis question. For the reasons above stated we consider that it would probably prolong it, but in any case it is ridiculous to maintain that the whole of the recommendations of the Royal Commission are likely to be rendered nugatory by the refusal to grant compensation. There is no doubt that the outcry raised in favour of compensation is out of all proportion to the value of the carcases condemned on account of tuberculosis. Notwithstanding numerous requests to be supplied with evidence as to actual cases of substantial loss incurred in this way, hardly any of the witnesses who came before the Commission could tell of more than some two or three such seizures during long periods involving sales of hundreds and even thousands of carcases. A fair measure of these losses is found in the fact that even in places where the system of inspection and condemnation is exceptionally and unnecessarily severe a premium of 3d. per head for bullocks and 6d. per head for cows proved quite sufficient to cover the losses through condemnation of tuberculous carcases.

The compensation which we have been discussing does not refer to that claimed for the condemnation of live animals showing symptoms of tuberculosis. That is an entirely different question, which we propose to consider on a future occasion along with other matters dealt with in the Report of the Royal Commission.

THE MICROBE OF PLEURO-PNEUMONIA.

FOR many years the bacteriological methods which have sufficed to reveal the germs of a considerable number of the contagious diseases have been applied to the lesions of pleuro-pneumonia, but with uni­formly unsuccessful results. Noone at the present day doubts that in the case of every contagious and infectious disease a living germ is at work, and is equally responsible for the progress of the disease in the sick animal and for the spread of the disease from one animal