12 



only for their own interest, but for tlie welfare of the public a3 

 well. Where this method of diagnosing the disease has been 

 adopted tuberculosis is gradually being eradicated, while it is 

 spreading rapidly and becoming widely disseminated in those 

 districts where the tuberculin test has not been employed. With- 

 out its use the disease cannot be controlled, and the cattle 

 owner is confronted by serious and continuous losses ; with its 

 use the disease can be eradicated from the herd, a clean herd 

 established, and the danger of its spreading to men removed. 

 Tuberculin, may, therefore be considered a most beneficial dis- 

 covery for the stock raiser. Strange to say, many of these men 

 have been incredulous, antagonistic, or prejudiced against the 

 tuberculin test by misinterpreting published statements, by 

 incorrect, unsubstantiated, or exaggerated reports, and by 

 alleged injurious effects to healthy cattle." 



I,aw states, in the Text Book of Veterinary Medicine, vol, 

 4, pp. 458, 465 : " Many stock owners still entertain an igno- 

 rant and unwarranted dread of the tuberculin test. It is true 

 that when recklessly used by ignorant and careless people it 

 may be made a root of evil, yet as employed by the intelligent 

 and careful expert it is not only safe, but it is the only known 

 means of ascertaining approximately the actual number affected 

 in a given herd. In most infected herds, living under what are 

 in other respects good hygienic conditions, two-thirds or three- 

 fourths are not to be detected without its aid, so that in clearing 

 a herd from tuberculosis, and placing both herd and products 

 above suspicion, the test becomes essential. In skilled hands 

 the tuberculin test will show at least nine-tenths of all cases of 

 tuberculosis when other methods of diagnosis will not detect 

 one-tenth." 



Nocard and I/eclainche, in Les Maladies Microbrennes des 

 Animaux, vol. 2, p. 85, say that: "Direct experiments and 

 observations collected by thousands show that the tuberculin 

 injections have no unfavorable effects. With healthy animals 

 the system is indifferent to the inoculation ; with tuberculous 

 animals it causes only slight changes, which are not at all 

 serious." 



Salmon, in the Year Book of the United States Department 

 of Agriculture, 1901, p. 592, has this to say in regard to the 

 tuberculin test : 



