koch’s tuberculin. 
431 
ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
KOCH’S TUBERCULIN. 
REPORT OF THE TUBERCULOSIS COMMISSION OF THE VETERIN¬ 
ARY DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
In the beginning of the present year a commission con¬ 
sisting of members of the veterinary faculty was appointed 
by the University of Pennsylvania for the purpose of experi¬ 
menting with Koch’s tuberculin, with the object of determ¬ 
ining its properties as a therapeutic agent, its value in diag¬ 
nosis and its power as a prophylactic. The experiments, 
however, were especially directed towards determining the 
diagnostic and therapeutic value of the remedy. The experi¬ 
ments were conducted in the university veterinary hospital 
with tuberculin obtained directly from the laboratory of Dr. 
Libbertz of Berlin. In the investigation it was found that 
tuberculin reacts best in comparatively strong and vigorous 
animals where the disease is well advanced, but where the 
disease is limited, or in its incipiency, a larger dose is neces¬ 
sary to produce a reaction. 
When a 1 eaction occurs, it comes on in from five to eight 
hours after the injection of the tuberculin, and reaches\s 
height in from twelve to sixteen hours; then the temperature 
gradually deci eases to normal. By the reaction is meant a 
rise in temperature of from three to five degrees Fahrenheit, 
acceleration of pulse and respiration and, in short, a general 
febrile disturbance. In none of the animals treated with the 
tuberculin was theie a loss of appetite or of rumination, 
except for a few hours during the time when the fever was at 
its height. 
The milk did not appear to be disturbed either as regards 
its quantity or quality. In one case, No. 5, it will be noticed 
that the temperature dropped below normal, and remained 
so foi thiee 01 four hours; in others again it remained per¬ 
manently higher than it was before the injection of the 
tuberculin, as shown in No. 4. 
