Catalogue description Royal Commission into the Relations of Human and Animal Tuberculosis: Minutes and Papers

The Royal Commission Appointed to Inquire into the Relations of Human and Animal Tuberculosis was set up by an Order in Council of 31 August 1901, under the chairmanship of Sir Michael Foster, Professor of Physiology in the University of Cambridge. Its remit was to inquire whether the disease in animals and man was one and the same; whether animals and man could be reciprocally infected with it, and under what conditions, if at all, the transmission of the disease from animal to man took place, and what were the circumstances favourable or unfavourable to such transmission. After duly considering the matter the Commission came to the conclusion that it would be desirable not to begin the enquiry by taking evidence, that is to say, by collecting the opinion of others, but to attack the problem laid before them by conducting experimental investigations of their own. The Commission thus became a research body seeking to establish facts by promoting scientific investigation. To this end it was provided with money from public funds for the employment of scientific staff and for the cost of experiments. The final report of the Commission was submitted in 1911 and led to the creation of the Medical Research Committee.