T11E DOSE OF TUBERCULIN. 
243 
ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
THE DOSE OF TUBERCULIN. 
By George A. Kinnell, M.R.C.V.S., Pittsfield, Mass. 
A paper read before the Massachusetts Veterinary Medical Association. 
Through the medium of your columns I wish to add my 
testimony as to the great value of tuberculin as a diagnostic 
agent in the detection of tuberculosis among the bovine species. 
But, as in the matter of dosage, my experience has differed 
somewhat from that of other observers who have recorded their 
observations, I take the liberty of going into details. 
As far as I can find out, those veterinarians who use tuber¬ 
culin do so in doses of from one to three drops for a mature 
cow; the most common dose being from two to three drops. 
Now, in my practice I have used, with the most gratifying 
results, a maximum dose of two-thirds of a minim; for yearling 
creatures I use one-third of a minim; for mature animals of 
small size or low condition I use from one-half to two-thirds of 
a minim. 
What have been the results ? 
By this system I have been enabled to detect the presence 
of tuberculosis in all its stages from the earliest to the most 
advanced. 
The most marked reaction I have met with, an elevation of 
6 2-5 degrees, was got out of a large-sized Jersey cow. The 
post-mortem examination revealed a few lesions on the surface 
of the spleen, but so far as microscopic examination could 
detect the lungs and all the other organs were entirely free 
from tubercular lesions. Again I have got elevations of 3, 4 
and 5 degrees in animals which were afterwards found to have 
tubercular lesions in the most advanced and aggravated forms. 
Others, again, have shown one or two tubercular nodules 
not larger than a hazelnut. 
While I am thoroughly convinced that a large dose has no 
advantage whatever over a small one, I am, on the contrary, of 
