358 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



similar to 148 are obtained, and the tuberculous animals in a herd are 

 shown by the reactions similar to those of 245. The ordinary iever 

 thermometer is used for taking the temperature of the cattle per rec- 

 tum, and the tuberculin test on the whole is a very simple, inexpensive 

 method of knowing with the greatest accuracy whether or not the cattle 

 are affected with tuberculosis. It is with the use of this method and 

 this alone that anyone can found a herd of beef or dairy cattle with 

 any assurance of its being free from tuberculosis. 



UNFOUNDED OBJECTIONS TO TUBERCULIN. 



Certain objections have been urged against the tuberculin test. 

 Some say it is harmful to cattle, that it will produce disease, that it 

 will cause abortion and that it may be used dishonestly. As far as its 

 producing any bad results, I will say that I have yet to see a single 

 sign of any bad eflfects from the injection of tuberculin. I have injected 

 "a one-pound guinea pig with a full dose for a thousand-pound cow 

 without producing any bad effects whatever. I can, if necessary, secure 

 from each of those for whom I have tested cattle with tuberculin a 

 statement that no harmful effects whatever were produced by the in- 

 jection. 



Some claim that the injection of tuberculin might produce tubercu- 

 losis. This claim has no ground whatever for belief. While it is true 

 that tuberculin is a liquid culture in which the germs of human tuber- 

 culosis have been grown and have charged with their toxic product, 

 it is also true that it has been pasteurized sufficiently to kill all germs of 

 tuberculosis and then filtered through a porcelain filter. It contains no 

 germs whatever, of any description, either dead or alive, and cannot 

 possibly produce any disease. The claim that tuberculin injection may 

 cause abortion is equally unfounded. It is possible that in some cases 

 contagious abortion has been spread by using the theremometer in the 

 vagina. Such results will be improbable if not impossible if the ther- 

 mometer is inserted per rectum, and no such results need follow if the 

 tuberculin test is properly and intelligently applied. 



POSSIBILITY OF DISHONEST^'. 



It is also clamed that the tuberculin test may be dishonestly used. 

 It must be admitted that it is possible to use the tuberculin test, or any- 

 thing else that man uses, dishonestly. A breeder of registered cattle 

 may furnish a false pedigree or a dairyman may put water in his milk. 

 There is a certain amount of dishonesty in everything, but no more I 

 dare sav in the use of the tuberculin test than in other lines of work. 



