244  Aimiml  Report  for  of  Ro}jal  \ 'eterinari/  College. 
of  these  conditions,  and  to  allow  a period  of  not  less  than  four 
weeks  to  elapse  between  the  first  and  second  injections  when  for 
any  reason  the  test  has  to  be  repeated.  It  has  long  been  known 
that  even  when  the  test  is  carried  out  in  the  ordinary  way  (the 
temperature  being  taken  three  or  four  times  with  intervals 
of  three  hours,  starting  from  the  ninth  hour  after  injection) 
many  tuberculous  animals  will  react  a second  time  in  much 
less  than  a month,  but  any  shorter  period  than  a month  has 
generally  been  regarded  as  insufficient  to  counteract  the  effect 
of  a previous  reaction.  It  was  easy  to  foresee  the  use  to  which 
dishonest  persons  would  put  this  tendency  of  a first  reaction 
to  tuberculin  to  prevent  a tuberculous  animal  from  reacting 
again  for  a certain  period  afterwards  ; and  in  practice  it  has 
not  hitherto  been  easy  to  circumvent  this  improper  use  of 
tuberculin,  as  it  is  often  highly  inconvenient  or  impossible  to 
delay  the  test  of  a newly-purchased  animal  for  a month  when 
there  is  any  suspicion  that  it  may  have  been  dishonestly 
treated  with  tuberculin  immediately  before  sale. 
This  matter  is  referred  to  here,  because  certain  experiments 
which  were  carried  out  ljy  Professor  Vallee  in  France,  during 
the  past  year,  indicate  a very  simple  method  of  detecting  this 
fraud.  All  that  is  necessary  is  to  give  double  the  ordinary 
dose,  to  start  taking  the  temperature  of  animals  under  the  test 
at  the  second  hour  after  the  injection  of  tuberculin,  and  to 
continue  taking  it  at  intervals  of  two  hours  up  to  the  sixteenth 
hour.  M.  Vallee  found  that  when  the  second  test  was  carried 
out  in  this  way,  even  as  early  as  forty-eight  hours  after  the 
first,  not  a single  animal  which  had  failed  to  pass  the  fii’st 
test  would  have  passed  the  second.  It  is,  of  course,  much  less 
convenient  for  veterinary  siirgeons  to  carry  out  the  test  in 
this  way,  but,  as  it  appears  to  afford  a much  better  guarantee 
that  a tuberculous  animal  will  not  escajje  detection,  those  who 
purchase  valuable  animals  subject  to  the  condition  that  they 
do  not  react  to  tuberculin  would  do  well  to  insist  that  this 
modified  form  of  the  test  should  l)e  carried  out.  It  ought  to 
be  added  that  M Vallee  found  that  the  test  when  conducted  in 
this  way  did  not  provoke  a reaction  in  non-tuberculous  cattle, 
and  a seller  who  warrants  his  animal  free  from  tuberculosis 
has  therefore  no  ground  for  objecting  to  the  new  pi’ocedure. 
Where,  however,  a double  dose  of  tuberculin  is  objected  to  by 
the  seller,'  there  would  probably  be  little  risk  to  the  purchaser 
if  the  test  were  made  with  an  ortlinary  dose,  provided  the 
temperature  were  taken  at  the  times  statetl  above. 
Epizootic  Lymphangitis. 
This  affection  was  referred  to  in  the  last  Annual  Report  as 
a new  disease  among  horses  in  Great  Britain.  The  first  cases 
