244 
GEORGE A. KINNELL. 
the opinion that a small dose, such as I use, is preferable to 
larger doses, and will give more certain results. 
Three weeks ago I had occasion to test a herd which had 
been tested by another practitioner last February. I under¬ 
stand the dose of tuberculin he used was two drops and a half. 
A number of the animals gave the reaction indicative of tuber¬ 
culosis, were condemned by him and, on post-moitem ex¬ 
amination, the correctness of his diagnosis was fully verified. 
There were eleven animals, however, which did not give the 
reaction, and were passed as sound. These eleven cieatures 
were tested by me three weeks ago with my maximum dose 
of two-thirds of a minim, and of the eleven animals four gave 
reactions of from 2 to 4 degrees. 
I slaughtered the animals next day, and found them in ad¬ 
vanced tuberculosis. In one of them the bronchial lymphatic 
glands were enormously enlarged, containing large quantities 
of liquid and caseous pus. The second cow was not so badly 
affected, but showed extensive lung ^lesions. The third cow 
was still less diseased, having in her right lung a caseous tuber¬ 
cular mass as large as my fist, while the fourth cow had at the 
upper part of her right lung a solitary nodule about the size of 
a hazelnut. The latter animal, I thought, might have become 
affected subsequent to the original test. 
Can it be that a small dose is more reliable than a large 
one ? or did the the tuberculin first injected aggravate the 
trouble and in some way render the system more susceptible to 
a second test. 
To sum up my conclusions: 
First .—The dose of tuberculin ordinarily used is unneces¬ 
sarily large. 
Second .—A dose of two-thirds of a minim is at least sufficient. 
Third .—A small dose may be more certain and more reliable 
than a large one. 
In condemning animals, I followed the usual rule that an 
elevation of 2 degrees indicates the presence of tuberculosis. 
The tuberculin used was that manufactured by Koch and 
