No. 4. J CATTLE COMMISSIONERS' REPORT. 467 



whereas before they had had more than double that time in 

 many instances. On the other hand, the animals were sub- 

 jected to the test within practically twenty-four hours, and 

 frequently within less, of their arrival in the market. 



Under these conditions this work was carried on until April 

 30 of this year, when the commission came to the conclusion 

 that it would be impossible to produce satisfactory results 

 with tuberculin unless animals could be allowed a much Longer 

 time in which to settle into a sufficiently normal condition 

 before being subjected to the examination. 



In this connection it should be remembered that, while this 

 work at Brighton and Watertown was being conducted under 

 these peculiar conditions, the commission was at the same 

 time successfully conducting large numbers of tests throughout 

 the State, in systematic work and in examination of animals 

 reported as suspicious ; and it thus had an opportunity of 

 comparing the results of these two classes of work, in which 

 the same diagnostic agent was used, prepared in the same 

 way and derived from the same source ; and the commission 

 became convinced that the unsatisfactory results at Brighton 

 were due to the conditions under which the tests were neces- 

 sarily made, and not to the unreliability of the diagnostic agent. 



As bearing upon this, the commission desires to quote the 

 following statement from the eighteenth annual report of the 

 Pennsylvania State Board of Agriculture for the year 1894, 

 official document No. 7, at page 106, published during the 

 present } T ear : — 



The experience of the officers of the Board in the administration 

 of this test to more than one thousand animals appears to clearly 

 prove the following points : — 



1. That, in proper and capable hands, tuberculin is a safe and 

 sure diagnostic agent for tuberculosis, and that in all the cases 

 coming under our notice not a single error has been shown, although 

 all cases of condemnation by this agent have been followed by care- 

 ful post-mortems. 



2. That great care is absolutely necessary in obtaining the normal 

 temperatures of the animals. We usually start out with the intention 

 of condemning all wdiich indicate a rise of two and one-half degrees 

 or more ; and, inasmuch as the normal temperature varies somewhat 

 with the time of day, the season and the time of feeding, some ani- 



