EDITORIAL. 
61 
following days and nights ; it is expected that high febrile reactions will occur, 
similar to those noticed in the human family. 
Autopsies will be made on these animals-and careful macroscopical and 
microscopical examinations of all the organs of the body will be made in order to 
learn the effect of the treatment ; culture experiments will also be made of these 
tissues with the view to determine what has been the effect of the lymph upon 
the vitality of the bacilli contained in them. Other animals in the earlier stages 
of the disease will be procured if possible and an effort made to cure them. If 
they cannot be obtained in a stage sufficiently early to be suitable for this pur¬ 
pose, the disease will be produced by inoculating healthy animals with pure 
cultures of the bacillus tuberculosis, and the curative action of the lymph given 
a full and complete opportunity to prove its value. 
Control experiments will be carried on at the same time. A very impor¬ 
tant line of work laid out by the Commission is that which is to determine the 
immunity of treated animals to the disease of tuberculosis. It is to be hoped that 
this can be established, as it will confer upon mankind the greatest of blessings. 
Should it be possible to establish immunity in cattle, if only for one year, it will 
be of inestimable value to the human race. 
The hospital authorities have set apart separate and isolated wards for the 
special use of the Commission in their investigations, and the tuberculoris com¬ 
mission of the University Medical Hospital will furnish the lymph necessary to 
carry on the work of the Veterinary Commission. 
From communications in the hands of the Commission from special corres¬ 
pondents at the Royal Veterinary School at Berlin, it is learned that up to the 
time of writing no official or extended investigation as to the value of Koch’s 
lymph in the tuberculosis of animals had been undertaken in Germany. 
This investigation undertaken by the Commission of the Veterinary 
Department of the University of Pennsylvania to determine the influence of 
Koch’s lymph in animals, is the first undertaken in this country. The Com¬ 
mission believe that this remedy of Koch’s will prove to be of great value to the 
veterinarian and agriculturist by enabling them to detect the disease in its earli¬ 
est stages, when it is so obscure as to evade the most careful physical examina¬ 
tion. Should this prove to be true it will enable the stock owner to weed out 
the diseased stock from his herd even before' they can do harm to his healthy 
cattle, or to the consumers of the products of his dairy. 
The opinions of veterinarians whose experience gives weight to their 
statements indicate that from 5 per cent to 25 per cent of the diary stock of the 
country is affected with tuberculosis. This is a most serious state of affairs, as 
tuberculosis is admitted to be a highly contagious disease and is more easily 
transmitted to man than to other animals from the fact that they consume the 
milk and flesh of these animals in a more or less uncooked condition. It is 
therefore a well recognized fact that tuberculosis in man is, to a very great ex¬ 
tent, derived from diseased cattle. 
And so the work of veterinary investigation goes on. 
We hope, at a later day, to publish reports from these vari¬ 
ous working bodies. 
