406 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pul). Doc. 



other test to " spot them." Such cases are simple, and a per- 

 son having no more than a small amount of skill may easily 

 detect them by physical examination. That the statement is 

 not true, however, will be at once granted by any person who 

 has given this matter any attention, for they must be satisfied, 

 as a matter of principle, that any germ disease must have its 

 incipient and earl}^ stages. 



As to the statement that " no cow which has been killed by 

 the State agents the past year has been a sufterer from tuber- 

 culosis," statistics of the commission absolutely show its falsity. 

 In the first place, up to the fourth day of October of this year 

 all animals killed were condemned upon a physical exami- 

 nation ; and yet this writer admits that tuberculosis may be 

 determined by such physical examination. As to those which 

 have been killed relying upon tuberculin as a test, any person 

 who has followed out the work of the commission and has been 

 present at the post-mortem examinations (which are always 

 performed publicly) can attest to the incorrectness of this 

 statement. The public are always oflered every facility to be 

 present at the post-mortem examinations ; in fact, the owners 

 of the majority of the cattle that have been killed have them- 

 selves, or through their agents, been present; and the com- 

 mission is very glad to say that in all but a few of the instances 

 it has been able to clearly demonstrate to the satisfaction of 

 such owners, who are clearly the persons most interested in 

 proving the inaccuracy of the test, that the disease has been 

 present and sufficiently well marked to be recognized by the 

 ordinary individual with the ordinary means of observation ; 

 and the commission has had in its experience many cases where 

 it has been obliged to destroy neat stock of persons who were, 

 up to that time, most hostile to the use of this test, who, hav- 

 ing been present at the post-mortem examinations, and seeing 

 for themselves the internal evidences of the disease, have 

 become its strongest advocates. 



Another argument against the use of tuberculin is a statement 

 as to its inaccuracy, based upon the earlier work of this com- 

 mission in testing animals brouoht into the Briohtou and Water- 

 town markets for sale. It is true, as has been shown previously 

 in this report, that mistakes were made in condemning the ani- 

 mals there, based upon the tuberculin test ; but this error was 



