No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. * 91 



makiuj;- its own biological products, lies uot ouly iu the tiiuiucial 

 saviug aifoided in this way, but also in having- perfectly fresh and 

 reliable material available at all times for immediate use. 



The use of tuberculin continues to increase as its accuracy as a 

 diagnostic agent become more widely known. I believe that the 

 great increase in llie use of tuberculin in Pennsylvania is due largely 

 to the fact that the preparation used is always fresh and reliable 

 and that misleading results have not been obtained through the 

 use of faulty material. The mallein test has also increased very 

 largely the past year. The results from the anthrax vaccinations 

 that have been made liave been wholly satisfactory. The vaccine 

 material used in the experiments upon cattle against tuberculosis, 

 has also been prepared in this laboratory. 



Dr. S. H. Gilliland has made an anti-tuberculin serum with which 

 he and Dr. C. Y. Vv^hite are experimenting in the prevention and 

 cui'e of tuberculosis. The work that Dr. Gilliland has done in this 

 direction is original work and will be reported upon separately by 

 him. 



The laboratory is used more and more each year by the veterin- 

 arians of the State as a place for obtaining an authoritative report 

 upon the pathological material submitted. It often occurs in the 

 course of a veterinarian's practice, as in the conrse of a physician's 

 practice, that diseases are met with that cannot readily be diag- 

 nosed. To establish a diagnosis requires a careful laboratory ex- 

 amination of a secretion or tissue or pathological product. Tlie 

 physician who is confronted by a case of this kind may have access 

 to any one of a very large number of laboratories at medical colleges 

 and hospitals throughout the State, but the veterinarian is without 

 any opportunitj' for assistance excepting that which is furnished 

 by the State Live Stock Sanitary Board. To be sure, the large lab- 

 oratories maintained for the use of physicians, are sometimes called 

 upon for assistance, but these laboratories are equipped and main- 

 tained to do such work as physicians require done. They are 

 not accustomed to examine material from animals. Their direct- 

 ors are, as a rule, unfamiliar with the diseases of animals, and, 

 generally, they do not care for this kind of work. Consequently, 

 if it were not done by the laboratory of the State Live Stock Sani- 

 tary Board it would not be done at all, as was the case before this 

 laboratory was established. Frequently it is of much public im- 

 portance that a diagnosis of a disease of animals shall be estab- 

 lished quickly and accurately. In the beginning of an outbreak of 

 anthrax, for example, it is of vital importance that it shall be 

 known at the earliest possible moment whether the disease under 

 observation is anthrax or not. If the diagnosis of anthrax is es- 

 tablished, it is possible immediately to take such measures as will 



