470 Veterinary Medicine. 



by the crafty sale of the infected, the expatriation of the healthy 

 animals from the home herds, leaving only the diseased, and 

 finally the selection from herds in transit of the tuberculous ones 

 to be scattered widely among the herds of the State, we must not 

 wonder at the continuance or encrease of tuberculosis in the com- 

 monwealth. Until a more rational and common sense legislation 

 can be secured, the unfortunate stock owner must defend himself 

 by the expensive alternative of testing every animal he buys. 



Private Testing of Herds and Sale of the Tuberculous. A most 

 reprehensible practice is the private testing of herds and the sale 

 as store animals of those that re-act. In this way a herd may be 

 cleared of infection, but at tenfold expense to the public at large,, 

 as every animal sold may convey the infection into a separate 

 herd. It is, however, a natural outcome of the unwise system of 

 refusing indemnity for the infected. 



Habituating to Tuberculin Testing and then Selling under- 

 Test. Many (not allj cattle, when injected with tuberculin re- 

 peatedly at short intervals, acquire a tolerance of the agent and 

 fail to react as at the first test. We have in such cases examined, 

 the animals post mortem and found active tuberculosis. Unscru- 

 pulous owners, aware of the fact, have their diseased cattle in- 

 jected repeatedly every few weeks, and as soon as they fail to- 

 respond, sell them under the guarantee of the tuberculin test. 

 The cattle, of course, carry the infection into other herds. This- 

 swindle could be obviated if it could be made a misdemeanor to 

 have or use tuberculin except as a State or Federal ofiicial acting, 

 for the government. This would imply the corollary that the 

 State should test the herds when called upon. 



Antipyretics During Tuberculin Test. Another method of un- 

 doing the tuberculin test is to feed large doses of antithermic 

 agents to depress the temperature at the time the rise from tuber- 

 culin would take place. Tuberculous cattle may thus be sold as- 

 sound animals, with a certificate of having successfully passed 

 the tuberculin test, the operator having given such certificate in 

 perfect good faith. It suggests the importance of withholding 

 tuberculin from public use, or of securing an absolute control of 

 the feeding and watering of the animals during the test. 



False Certificates of Tuberculin Tests. Stock owners have re- 

 ported to the writer alleged tuberculin tests of their herds whick 



