502 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



cial subject of study, we found a general consensus of opinion as 

 to the efficacy of the test. Perhaps we may best render our own 

 impressions by quoting the evidence of Professor McFadyean, 

 given before us, showing that all doubt on the subject had been 

 removed from his mind since his experiments were carried out at 

 the request of the former commission: "No person, whether he 

 were a layman or a veterinary surgeon, when summoned to look 

 at an animal suspected of showing symptoms of tuberculosis, 

 could give an opinion that was really of much value in the great 

 majority of cases unless he used tuberculin. We have all recog- 

 nized that within recent years. If the animal is in the very last 

 stage of the disease, one may make a diagnosis that has little 

 chance of error, but in the great majority of cases it is only a 

 guess. With tuberculin it is practically a certainty. I should 

 like, if I am not going too fully into that, to give evidence regard- 

 ing the reliability of tuberculin as a test. I made a number of 

 experiments on that, and reported them to the previous Royal 

 Commission. These, however, were not entirely favorable to the 

 use of tuberculin, because in a considerable proportion of cases the 

 indication afforded by the tuberculin was wrong. But, since that, 

 experiments and observations made in somewhat different circum- 

 stances have yielded entirely different results, and I have the 

 most implicit faith in tuberculin as a test for tuberculosis, when 

 it is used on animals standing in their own premises, and undis- 

 turbed. It is not a reliable test when used on cattle in a market, 

 or on any cattle that have been shipped, or trained, or otherwise 

 excited. That has been found out since I made my report. 

 Other observers have had similar results under similar circum- 

 stances. Unfortunately, the Royal Commission set apart a very 

 small sum to test this question of diagnosis ; I think it was £100. 

 Tuberculin was only newly introduced then, and I could not get 

 anybody who would submit his cows to the test. It was only 

 through the kindness of Professor Brown, who allowed me to use 

 the test on animals condemned under the pleuro-pneumonia 

 slaughter order, that I was able to make the test. I got these 

 animals in slaughter houses, and, after they had been trained, or 

 otherwise brought there, tested them. Then they were killed 

 next day, and a considerable proportion of errors were found. 

 But since that, using it on animals in their own premises, I have 

 found that it is practically infallible. I have notes here of one 

 particular case that I might put in, where in a dairy twenty-five 

 animals in all were tested, and afterwards they were all slaugh- 

 tered. There was only one animal that did not react, and it was 

 the only animal not tuberculous when they were killed." We en- 



