122 Bureau of Farmers' Institutes. 



frequently the topic of conversation, various devices should be 

 employed to assist in the determination of its presence in a sus- 

 pected animal. We live in an age where wonderful '' discover- 

 ies " from the fertile brains of " scientific explorers "' are 

 thrust upon us in rapid succession only to be accepted for a 

 time, heralded as marvelous truths, tried, doubted, cast aside and 

 abandoned. In my short life I have passed through an era of 

 vaccine, mallein, antitoxin, pleuropneumonia^ tuberculin, and we 

 see them all travel the one path from spontaneous adoration 

 through a varied career to a well deserved obscurity. They are 

 generally born a proprietary article or the result of a secret pro- 

 cess of preparation. They bloom for a while and then fade away, 

 and with them go their victims, their advocates and the con- 

 demnation of a fickle world. 



A FEW^ WORDS ABOUT TUBERCULIN. 



Its use has attracted considerable attention. At first it was 

 offered as a valuable remedial agent for the cure of tuberculosis, 

 but being unable to sustain that reputation, it has since posed 

 as a means of ascertaining the existence of tuberculosis in an 

 animal when nothing else suggests the possibility of its presence. 



Perhaps I am not in a position to criticise the action of tuber- 

 culin, or to comment upon its efQcacy as a diagnostic agent. I 

 admit that I have had no practical experience with its use. I 

 never injected it into an animal to verify a suspicion of tuber- 

 culosis^ principally because I reside in a large city and as yet the 

 opportunity has not presented itself for me so to do. Neither do 

 I wish to prejudice anyone against its use. Sometime ago the use 

 of mallein was strongly rec(5mmended as a useful aid in the diag- 

 nosis of glanders in horses. I tried it in a number of instances 

 and the results were entirely disappointing. In several pronounced 

 cases of glanders with apparent manifestations, the test gave no 

 reaction, and so far as I am concerned, its employment is not only 

 unavailing but useless and dangerous. 



Let us return to the subject of tuberculin. From time to time 

 there have been brought to an abattoir within my jurisdiction, a 



