No. 4.] CATTLE COMMISSIONERS' EEPORT. 407 



not due to tuberculin, but to other causes which have been 

 ah'eacly discussed. 



Another ar<>ument adduced against the use of this ajrent is. 

 *' Some who are as good authority as any declare the injection 

 of tul)erculin to be dangerous, as well as useless." We have 

 already shown that it is not useless in detecting the disease ; 

 that it is dangerous is yet to be shown by actual facts. With 

 the thousands and thousands of doses of tuberculin that have 

 been used in this way in this State and through this country 

 and in Europe during the past four years, there is yet to come 

 the first authentic account of any injury that has been done with 

 it to healthy animals, when its use has been in competent hands. 

 A statement of this importance should not be given weight un- 

 less it is accompanied with facts proving* its accuracy. No such 

 facts have ever yet been brought forward by any person; and 

 these statements usually emanate from sources that have given 

 the matter but little attention. An examination of the method 

 by which tuberculin .is prepared will show that it is impossible 

 for it to produce the disease, and that it has not done so, the 

 experience of the commission and many others in the field have 

 clearly proved. 



It is further said, "To kill a good, healthy cow, because it 

 may have a small tubercle the size of a pea somewhere in the 

 system, is worse than a blunder." Can it be said that a cow 

 which is tuberculous, though there may be but "one tubercle 

 the size of a pea," is a good, healthy cow, and incapable of dis- 

 seminating the disease to others? Tuberculosis is a contagious 

 disease, and if an animal has one tubercle in it, who will say 

 that the blood is not already contaminated ? Experience has 

 satisfied this commission that there is but one course to pursue, 

 and that is to destroy all of the animals in which tuberculosis 

 is present, regardless of the degree. 



It is further said that ' ' The worst thing that can be said 

 about the tuberculin test is that it is no judge of the degree of 

 the disease, and that, while its indications are correct in a great 

 majority of cases, it frequently says that the disease exists when 

 it is in such an incipient form that the animals are apparently 

 well and capable, under usual conditions, for many years of 

 useful service." The use of the tuberculin is merely for the 

 purpose of detecting the existence of the disease ; in the opinion 



