Tuberculosis. 493 



before, and without the tuberculin test demanded of all such stock 

 animals. 



Indemnities are restricted to $25 per head and under for non- 

 registered animals and grades, and $50 for registered thorough- 

 breds. The average appraised price has been $23. 



On the whole an excellent work is being done in Pennsylvania, 

 and herds now tested are found to contain not more than half as 

 many infected animals as did those tested a few years ago. A 

 better showing would doubtless have been made if the State ap- 

 propriation had permitted the board to give attention to all ap- 

 plications made. 



The good results may be attributed to the adoption of a system 

 which secured the confidence and trust of the stockowner : he 

 sees that the State has no desire to oppress nor injure him ; he is 

 in no dread of a high-handed confiscation of his remunerative 

 property without indemnity ; while advanced cases are destroyed 

 he is left the option of segregating his latent cases and marketing 

 their products under the precaution of sterilization ; he can raise 

 the progeny of these animals if he will, under similar precautions ; 

 he can sell his stock and its product under government certificate 

 if they prove sound ; he can avail of government assistance in 

 protecting his herd against reinfection, by the testing of animals 

 to be purchased. Under such a system there is no object in secret- 

 ing infection, and in underhanded sale of tuberculous animals, 

 with the spread of the disease into new centres. Even the tardy 

 ■or inimical stockowner is roused to action by public opinion, when 

 he finds the market for his suspected product growing more and 

 more uncertain, and feels the daily encreasing pressure of opinion 

 among neighboring owners, that he is exceeding his rights in 

 maintaining an infected herd in the very midst of their purified 

 ones. 



A most important item of the system of Pennsylvania, and of 

 sixteen other states, is the compulsory testing of all stock cattle 

 introduced into the State. This has the further support of the 

 Federal Government which demands a tuberculin test of every 

 stock bovine animal imported into the United States. This is a 

 natural corollary of every attempt to restrict or extirpate tuber- 

 culosis from a State, but when through willful blindness a great 

 State like New York, repudiates a measure of this kind, it but 



