58 THE MILK SITUATION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 



erly authorized officials, while the Surgeon General of the Army takes 

 the view that such restriction is not necessary, with the reservation, 

 nevertheless, that the certificate of authorized officials or agents only 

 should be recognized. Dr. Crichton, commissioner of health of 

 Seattle, Wash., is most emphatic in his indorsement of the suggestion 

 that the use of tuberculin be restricted, since, as he states, a tuberculin 

 test is valueless unless it be known that the stock has not been pre- 

 viously tested. Mr. Corbin Thompson, representing the Dairymen's 

 Association, affirms that the Government should control tuberculin, 

 that only qualified veterinarians should be allowed to use it, and that 

 they should be required to report each test made. Borden's Con- 

 densed Milk Co., on the other hand, contends that to withhold tuber- 

 culin from the profession, assuming that such a thing is possible, and 

 to restrict its use entirely to governmental agents, would be an unfair 

 discrimination against the needs and rights of individual cattle 

 owners and an unjust restriction on the veterinary profession. The 

 Walker-Gordon Laboratory, of Washington City, observes that the 

 proposed circumscription of its use to qualified and trustworthy per- 

 sons should be practicable, and would unquestionably be advisable, 

 since it is a well-known fact that after one injection an animal may 

 not again react for " even six months later." 



'While it is, for obvious reasons, not practicable to limit its produc- 

 tion and circumscribe its distribution to official agencies, as is done in 

 the case, for example, of paper especially prepared for the printing 

 of currency by the Federal Government, it is, in the judgment of the 

 committee, feasible to require that all tuberculin manufactured in 

 one State and offered for sale in another should measure up to a 

 prescribed standard and be administered only by authorized veteri- 

 narians, or other skilled persons, under the supervision of the Federal 

 Government, so far as this coincides with the powers granted by the 

 Federal Constitution for the regulation of interstate commerce, as 

 exemplified by the food and drugs act of 1906 and other enactments 

 of the Federal Legislature having relevancy to the subject. 



ADULTERATION OF TUBERCULIN SHOULD BE PROHIBITED UNDER SEVERE 



PENALTY. 



Any attempts to adulterate or otherwise impair the efficiency or 

 value of tuberculin as a diagnostic agent should be severly punished. 

 Such punishment should, furthermore, extend with equal force to 

 persons convicted of inoculating cattle with the intent and purpose 

 of rendering them immune for a period of time thereafter to reac- 

 tion under the tuberculin test, for it is known that animals may in 

 this manner be made unsusceptible to reaction for so long a period 

 as three months or more. It is advised by competent authorities that 

 the test be applied to all cattle once in every six months or at least 

 once each year. With a view to the proper enforcement of the safe- 

 guards against immunization, every druggist or other person dis- 

 pensing tuberculin should be compelled to register each sale and 

 maintain a detailed record of all such transactions for the scrutiny 

 of the supervising officials. It should also be required that every 

 veterinarian or other practitioner applying the tuberculin test make 

 an accurate report thereof to the duly constituted authority, and 



