524 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



more was done so far as studying the disease in her was concerned. Nos. 

 2 and 3 were again retested in August, No. 2 reacting two degrees and 

 eight-tenths, No. 3 reacting one degree and eight-tenths. The latter two 

 are at the present time being held for experimental purposes. It is worthy 

 of note that three of the four animals would not have been considered as 

 being affected with the disease according to the methods adopted in trans- 

 atlantic countries where it is stated, according to a description of the 

 application of the test in a volume written by Nocard: 'Elevations of 

 temperature of less than eight-tenths of a degree have no meaning. Every 

 animal whose temperature indicates an elevation between eight-tenths 

 of a degree and one degree and four-tenths must be considered under 

 suspicion and will have to undergo, after an interval of a month or so, a 

 new injection of a larger dose of tuberculin. [These temperatures are 

 stated by Nocard according to the centigrade system .8 C.=1.44° F., 

 1.4° C.=2.52 F. This may be a little misleading as it stands without de- 

 signating what system is meant. Prof. Grange used the Fahrenheit sys- 

 tem. — Author.] It is probably owing to the fact that sufficient importance 

 has not been attached to the minutest elevation in temperature that tuber- 

 culin has been wrongfully blamed for missing cases that were afterwards 

 shown to be affected with the disease. Setting the condemning figure at 

 one and four-tenths (this should be translated as centigrade. — Author) or 

 two degrees is only arbitrary as far as I am aware. Experience with 

 tuberculin has caused me to believe that if this agent causes the elevation 

 of temperature, even to a slight extent, it is an indication of tuberculosis. 

 Unfortunately we are not able to tell whether it is the tuberculin or some- 

 thing else which causes this elevation, so a wide margin is taken and set 

 at two degrees and mistakes are reduced to the minimum in careful 

 hands." 



Since the testing of the college herd has fallen to my lot, I have at- 

 tempted to establish the value of the tuberculin in an indirect manner, 

 and have endeavored to find what significance an arbitrary point of con- 

 demnation has, besides the primary effort to eradicate tuberculosis from 

 the herd. 



By saying I have tried to ascertain the value of tuberculin in an indi- 

 rect manner, I mean especially the errors which are possible during the 

 tuberculin test, which, in all probability, do not result from tuberculin 

 itself but rather from our inability to understand the cases which arise. 

 They are perplexing and confuse our clear conceptions of the tuberculin 

 test. Neither the eye of a skilled veterinarian nor the hand of a careful 

 manipulator is capable of revealing the cause of these functional dis- 

 turbances which produce a wide range of variability in an apparently nor- 

 mal condition. Speculation in a learned professional way only makes our 

 ignorance more intense and until science can give us the truth we might 

 as well state flat-footed that it is beyond us. Indigestion, the common 

 answer, may be correct, nervous excitability may be correct, cold may be 

 correct and a dozen other answers may be correct, but we are usually un- 

 able to detect which one of a dozen possible disorders is the momentary or 

 prolonged cause, and if this disarrangement should occur while taking 

 the temperatures after the injection, who is going to tell whether it is the 

 action of the tuberculin or some other agent? Fortunately, however, the 

 chances stand about 9 to 1 in favor of the tuberculin. For this reason 

 we are safe in recommending tuberculin with the possibility of this error. 

 To eliminate all error so far as possible in making the test, we have not 



