468 BOABD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



mals showing a considerable elevation of temperature at the time of 

 feeding, but failing to show any further elevation under the action 

 of the tuberculin, it is therefore very important to obtain the average 

 normal temperature without its being influenced by surrounding 

 circumstances. . . . 



9. That exposure to the hot sun, long- continued confinement in 

 an illy ventilated building, unusual changes of food, especially from 

 green to dry feed, failure to water at usual time, and in some nervous 

 animals any exciting cause, may produce more or less variation from 

 the normal temperature. . . . 



16. The causes which may produce a rise in temperature without 

 the injection of tuberculin may be enumerated as follows : — 



Near approach of calving, which, with some animals, will give a 

 rise of temperature which may mislead. Variations in feed, espe- 

 cially from green grass to dry feed, without sufficient water ; errors in 

 this direction have been brought up off green pasture and confined in 

 a barn, on dry food, while the test was in progress. With nervous 

 animals, the excitement due to the presence of strangers and the 

 attending surroundings may cause an elevation of temperature, which, 

 however, from its low rate, should not mislead a careful observer. 

 In fact, any sudden variation in the treatment of the herd may cause 

 a rise in temperature, and, if this is not taken into account, it may 

 at least partially mislead. 



Almost every one of these peculiar conditions referred to in 

 this report are met with in the experience of the commission 

 at Brighton. 



A further remark might be made in this connection, in re- 

 gard to the discrepancy between the results as found on post- 

 mortem examination and those indicated by the tuberculin test, 

 admitting the tuberculin to have been applied under proper 

 normal conditions. The post-mortems which are made at 

 Brighton, Watertown and Somerville are necessarily con- 

 ducted in the ordinary way that held examinations are made, 

 where a large number of animals have to be handled, and 

 where necessarily the examiner does not have laboratory facil- 

 ities. In such examinations it is customary for the examiner 

 to look for the disease in those organs and portions of the body 

 where experience has shown that it is most apt to be found, 

 and, if the disease is not there found, the examination is not 

 further pursued, because needed additional facilities are not at 

 hand. 



