Sir Richard Thorne Thorne's second Harben Lecture on ' Tuberculosis"
practically resolved itself into a condemna- tion of uncooked milk, and an appeal to doctors to use their
great influence" in inducing the public to boil their milk. We are, it seems, the only civilised nation of the world who habitually consume uncooked milk, and that in face of the great prevalence of tuberculosis amongst our much-cows. To illustrate this statement, the lecturer declared that the removal of every tubercular cow from our dairies and cow- sheds would mean at the lowest estimate the withdrawal of over half-a-million cows from our milk-supply. This he regarded as a counsel of unnecessary perfection, but advo- cated the immediate seizure and slaughter of all cows with advanced tuberculosis in any part of the body and all cows with suspicious udder diseases, compensation to be paid out of the public funds. Two interesting points made by the lecturer remain to be noted,—first, that the artificial con- ditions under which milk is now produced in cowhonses are precisely those which tend most effectually to induce tuberculosis in cows ; and secondly, that, owing to the better supervision of town cowhouses, tubercle bacilli were found in far larger numbers in the country than in the town milk supplied to Liverpool and Manchester. We are afraid, in these days of so-called "Christian Science" and conscientious ob- Isogon, that Sir Richard greatly exaggerates the influence of doctors. How many intelligent people keep filters that are of the slightest use, or will be bothered to boil their drinking water ?
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