Microbie Diseases Individually Considered. 237 



The special hyperthermic action of tnberciilin on 

 tuberculous animals renders it a diagnostic agent for 

 tuberculosis. 



The doses employed by different experimenters 

 have varied within very large limits; in general, the 

 injection of 20 to 40 centigrams of tuberculin is suf- 

 ficient. JFrom the tenth to the twentieth hour, oc- 

 casionally sooner, an elevation of temperature of from 

 one to three decrees is observed in tuberculous ani- 

 mals. This is therefore an excellent means of brine^- 

 inff to lio-ht obscure cases of tuberculosis. Unfor- 

 tunately the rule ia not without exceptions: some 

 tuberculous subjects do not react at all and a certain 

 number of others, not tuberculous, give the charac- 

 teristic reaction. In spite of these exceptions tuber- 

 culin still furnishes us with a supplementary means 

 of diagnosis and ought not to be discarded. M. 

 Nocard has shown that it has no injurious action on 

 lactation or gestation ; he recommends its employ- 

 ment in the sanitary inspection of dairies where 

 milk is produced which is intended for public con- 

 sumption.* 



On account of its phlogogenic and destructive ac- 

 tion it might be supposed that tuberculin would act 

 as a curative agent, but, unfortunately, this hypothe- 



* [Tuberculin during the last three years has been very exten- 

 sively tested in Europe and in America and the results obtained 

 are still entirely in harmony with the opinion here expressed. 

 Animals in the last stage of the disease do not react; those which 

 from any cause have an abnormal temperature at the time of the 

 inoculation are also unsuitable. When the test is carefully made 

 the result is almost always reliable, although the extent of the 

 thermal reaction gives no indication of the extent of the diseased 

 process in the animal. — (D.)] 



