No. 4.] CATTLE COMMISSIONERS' REPORT. 403 



deeply along the outer side of the left hind leg, extending from 

 the gambrel to the pastern joint. Here numerous collections 

 of the peculiar product of the disease were found scattered over 

 the entire length described. In this case, for instance, it would 

 have been impossible to pronounce the animal a case of tuber- 

 culosis had it not been for the tuberculin. 



Another argument frequently adduced against the use of 

 tuberculin is that the disease is not any more prevalent to-day 

 than it was fifty years ago. What the conclusion is to be drawn 

 from this statement, it is difficult to say. It is not claimed by 

 the commission that the tuberculin is a proper agent because of 

 the increased prevalence of the disease ; but, even if the disease 

 does not exist to-day any more than it did fifty years ago, 

 there is no reason why every effort should not be made to seek 

 out and remove that which does exist, now that science has 

 placed means for doing so in our hands. In regard to the state- 

 ment of the existence of the disease, as compared with fifty 

 years ago, it is impossible to say whether it is true or false. 

 No reliable statistics have ever existed, or do exist, to show the 

 prevalence of this disease among animals ; and it is only since 

 the discovery of the peculiar faculty of tuberculin that the 

 problem of eradicating the disease from among neat cattle could 

 be seriously considered. 



If tuberculin is as efficient as this commission, and others 

 who have used it in large quantities, believe it to be, it simply 

 puts in our hands an accurate means of determining the exis- 

 tence of the disease. As this ao-ent has not been used before, 

 and as its use has proved conclusively that the disease may exist 

 to a marked extent in animals which show no external symp- 

 toms of it, it is not a proper comparison to place its declarations 

 beside those coming from a simple })hysical examination, except 

 to say that it is a much more reliable method in determining the 

 existence of the disease. 



Another argument used against tuberculin and the present 

 policy of the State in endeavoring to eradicate the disease by 

 the destruction of the centres of contaaion, is contained in the 

 statement that, " while tuberculosis was on the increase (in the 

 bovine race), consumption, the same disease in the human race, 

 was on the decrease." 



In the first place, as there have never been any statistics, it is 



