390 
JOHN M. PARKER. 
describing the condition of affairs as being so fearful, and 
leading the public to imagine that milk is the prime cause of 
tuberculosis in human beings. They are opposed to the 
compulsory use of tuberculin in their herds because they 
feel that the percentage of errors in the work of the Commis¬ 
sion, so far, has not been such as to warrant the general use 
of tuberculin throughout the State. Again, many of the 
farmers have grave doubts whether the sacrifice demanded 
of them will result in the complete eradication of the disease 
from among their herds. They would not object, however, 
to the thorough and frequent physical examination by com¬ 
petent persons with the tuberculin test in suspicious cases. 
This, with the thorough disinfection of infected barns would, 
in the opinion of many, remove all serious danger, and grad¬ 
ually a better condition of affairs would result. The ques¬ 
tion of expense is also a grave one. The work of the Com¬ 
mission in the isolated counties of Nantucket, Dukes and 
Barnstable, where there are only 665 cattle, with their work 
at Brighton, Watertown and Somerville, and the examina¬ 
tion of isolated cases reported by inspectors for about two 
months, absorbed more than $100,000. 
When one considers that there are 223,636 cattle in the 
State, and the examination of 5,394. cost over $100,000, some 
vague idea of the cost is secured. . 
The lessons to be learned from the experience gained in 
Massachusetts would seem to indicate that while tuberculin 
is a most valuable aid to diagnosis, yet under certain con¬ 
ditions, especially immediately after transportation, when the 
animal is excited and the temperature variable, the practice 
of taking only one temperature before the injection of tuber¬ 
culin is a bad one, and under these circumstances reliance on 
tuberculin is dangerous and is liable to lead to errors of a 
serious kind. 
Second .—That in a very large proportion of cases of tu¬ 
berculosis that react to tuberculin, the disease is extremely 
slight. In this condition the animal is not a source of danger 
to either human beings or other cattle. 
Third .—Under favorable circumstances many such cases ' 
would entirely recover. , 
