Xo. 4.] CATTLE COMMISSIONERS' REPORT. 401 



been in favor of the method established ; not only have favor- 

 able criticisms been met with throughout the length and breadth 

 of this Commonwealth, but the matter has been followed out 

 with keen interest in the adjoining States, and has there met 

 the almost universal commendation. The criticisms have usu- 

 ally come from persons not having a full knowledge of the 

 sul^ject, or from those who, owning apparently healthy stock 

 which have not indicated the slightest external symptoms of 

 being tubercular, and which are apparently performing all the 

 functions of their lives with at least their normal regularity, 

 have had such cattle, after being tested with this agent, con- 

 demned and killed as tuberculous. It is not to be wondered 

 at that such persons should look with considerable doubt upon 

 the efficiency of an agent which was apparently robbing them 

 of their property. 



It is now proposed to briefly take up some of those objec- 

 tions to the use of tuberculin which have recently been put 

 forward, and to answer the argument contained in them. 



Arguments. 



It is said, "The intelligent physician of to-day does not 

 need tuberculin or any other drug to enable him to make a cor- 

 rect diagnosis of tuberculous disease in the human subject ; " 

 from which it is argued that there is no need to use the agent 

 for this purpose in the bovine species. 



This is a fallacious argument, for it is not true that the intel- 

 ligent physician of to-day can in all cases correctly diagnose 

 the existence of tuberculosis in the human being by means of 

 a physical examination. Tuberculosis, whether in the human 

 being or in animals, is a germ disease, and may be located in any 

 organ or tissue of the body ; it is true that in perhaps a majority 

 of the cases the lungs are aflected, and that it is a comparatively 

 easy matter to diagnose a case of pulmonary tuberculosis. Un- 

 der these circumstances, with a human being, the practitioner 

 is able, by using the stethoscope, to accurately examine all 

 parts of the chest and the action of the different respiratory 

 movements at his own will ; he has to deal with a voluntary 

 agent, who is able to assist him in his work very materially. 

 Such an agent can be directed to breathe in, to breathe out, to 

 arrest the motion of breathing, to couirh when he is asked, to 



