No. 4.] CATTLE COMMISSIONERS' REPORT. 



543 



animal is of no importance, because, under the law of 'this State 

 and of every other State where any action is being taken, the 

 authorities destroy the animal where the disease is found, and 

 this is the object primarily sought to be accomplished by the 

 application of the test. Unless this policy is pursued, the 

 disease can never be eradicated. 



This being so, no evil can arise under any aspect in applying 

 the tuberculin test to animals which are in fact diseased. Inas- 

 much as authorities are united in the opinion that the presence 

 of the disease cannot be detected until after the tuberculin is 

 applied, in the vast majority of cases, we are necessarily not in 

 position to apply the tuberculin only to diseased animals ; and 

 it must necessarily follow that in the adoption of this test a 

 certain proportion of healthy animals must be subjected to the 

 influence of tuberculin, in endeavoring to ascertain by its use 

 which of them are diseased. 



The only material question in this connection, therefore, is, 

 does the use of tuberculin in any way injure healthy animals? 

 That tuberculin cannot produce the disease of tuberculosis is a 

 matter of absolute certainty. This was thoroughly discussed 

 in the report of this commission last year.* As bearing upon 

 this matter, we desire to call the attention of your honorable 

 body to the fact that in the following cases herds which have 

 been once tested and the premises properly disinfected by the 

 members of this Board have been retested after periods as 

 shown in the table, and found to be entirely free from tuber- 

 culosis, which shows not only that the test is reliable, but also 

 that it did not produce the disease. 



* Nor has it ever been shown that the use of tuberculin has been productive of any 

 other ill results in animals to which it has been administered ; while, on the other hand, 

 authority after authority have declared that in their experience it has never produced ill 

 results when administered to other than tuberculous animals. 



