BOVIXE TUBEKCULOSIS. 123 



Dumber of cows wbicli have been subjected to the tuberculin 

 test and according to its provings, were affected with tubercu- 

 losis. In all the number that were slaughtered at different times, 

 I have seen but few cases of generalized tuberculosis among 

 them, and I am inclined to think that possibly' they were ob- 

 tained more bv accident than by operation of the test. From what 

 I could learn, the ones most affected gave the slightest reactions 

 under the test. Many of the cows in which what might have beeu 

 tuberculosis, but probably was not, was discovered only after 

 the most diligent search. They were in the form of isolated, 

 minute pin-head deposits in various glands and in the structure 

 of the liver and were accepted as responsible for the provings 

 of the test. One thing is certain: If what is often accepted as evi- 

 dence of tuberculosis by the tuberculin operator is really tuber- 

 culosis, then the entire bovine tribe, both young and old, are 

 hopelessly afHicted with this disease — hardly a reasonable sup- 

 position. Among them were cows in which the most diligent and 

 careful scrutiny failed to discover the least sign of disease, and 

 I learned that in one of these animals, the rise in temperature 

 had been most pronounced. 



While my observation in regard to the efficacy of tuberculin 

 has been entirely negative. I do not doubt that it has many ad- 

 vocates and many of them have advised me that I have been un- 

 fortunate in witnessing the work of careless or incompetent 

 operators — hardly an acceptable explanation. To me the object 

 of tuberculin has been a most interesting study, and a study of 

 those who advise its use, has often beeu a more interesting 

 studv. One of the most remarkable truths connected with 

 the subject seems to be the fact that a negative reaction with 

 the test is not demonstrative of a freedom from tuberculosis. 

 An animal may be a victim of generalized tuberculosis and yet 

 the test not reveal its presence, a tuberculin idiosyncrasy. Time 

 alone will decide the fate of tuberculin. It has banished into 

 obscurity many popular delusions which have from time to time 

 become associated with the medical creed, and I fear that when 

 posterity reads the history of medicine, it will find that in a cer- 



