Report of Veterinarian. 



F. L. EUSSELL. 



TUBERCULIX AS A DIAGXOSTIC AGEXT. 



No apology need be offered for a report relating to bovine 

 tuberculosis. The importance of the subject is excuse enough. 



Those who are impatient at the amount of attention the subject 

 is receiving from all quarters need to realize its importance more 

 fully than they do. It is doubtless possible to take extreme ground 

 in advocating the importance of tuberculosis from a sanitary and 

 economic standpoint, but the general public is so far from realizino- 

 the true importance of the matter that there is need of even these 

 extremists. There is no safety in ignorance or indifference. 

 Safety consists in recognizing existing dangers, and adopting the 

 most efficient means of combating them. The world moves; and 

 this is true even in relation to medical science and it has been 

 especially true during the last ten years. Greater advance has 

 been made in our knowledge of the causes of disease during the 

 past ten years than in the fifty years preceding. And with the 

 increased knowledge of the causes has naturally come a correspond- 

 ing knowledge of the means of preventing and of curing disease. 

 The magnitude of this progress, and its far reaching results in 

 prolonging life and preserving health it is yet difficult to realize. 



The most progressive and enlightened can hardly comprehend it, 

 and it is in no way strange that the public that is to be directly 

 benefited is somewhat slow to accept facts that are new and 

 not well understood. Knowledge must always be in advance of 

 practice, and there are never lacking those extremely conservative 

 individuals who cling to the old until nearly everybody else has 

 acknowledged the value of the new. These individuals have their 

 place, no doubt, and act in some measure as a balance wheel, but 

 progress is made in spite of them and not with their help. There 

 are those even at the present time, who are decrying vaccination 

 against small pox and insisting that it does more harm than good 



