62 
EDITORIAL. 
That the results in the curative effects of the lymph have 
failed to be what they were expected is no longer a doubt, 
and, in this connection, probably experiments in our medicine 
might be justifiably considered of little advantage. But it is 
not so much in relation to the curative good that could be 
obtained that the experiments ought to be made, but to 
solve the question of the advantages of injections of tuber¬ 
culin as a means of diagnosis. To us veterinarians this is a 
most important subject, the difficulties of making a diag¬ 
nosis by merely physical signs being, we all know, in many 
instances quite difficult. 
It was claimed, at the beginning, that the first result ob¬ 
served after an injection of Koch lymph was a peculiar 
general reaction, which was always characteristic of individ¬ 
uals affected with tuberculosis, while, on the contrary, it was 
absent in healthy subjects. How important was this, and 
how valuable this reaction, if it could be depended upon! 
But, alas, the reports that come to the medical world from 
all directions seem to require the abandonment of the hope 
that reliance could be placed on this feature of its operation, 
and it appears pretty evident that the general reaction can¬ 
not be depended upon as a positive means of diagnosis, it 
making its appearance in some cases very appropriately, 
while in others the lymph remains powerless to produce it, 
having consideration neither for a diseased or perfectly 
healthy condition of the patient. 
In the last Revue des Sciences Medicales, Dr. S. Gaillard, 
after reviewing all that had been written on the subject, says : 
“ The value of Koch’s method as to the point of view of the 
diagnosis and of the treatment of tuberculosis is, for the 
present, easy to appreciate. It has been proved that if the 
lymph has a special influence, let us say even specific, upon 
tuberculous nodules, it may, however, remain ineffectual on 
phthisic patients, giving rise to neither general nor local re¬ 
action ; besides, on the contrary, giving rise to reactions, 
specially general, on tuberculous individuals.” 
These words seem to be very conclusive that the hopes 
veterinarians had conceived are not to be realized ; but still 
