TUBERCULIN TESTING AND TESTERS. 
SI 
give a chance to his clients, who are the large cattle dealers, “ to 
get rid ” of their stock. Many of them are being approached by 
the above-named dealers to “ do better ” (meaning not to con¬ 
demn so many, or very few,) or else they will call in his nearest 
competitor, who, by the way, is the licensed “ cow-tester,” or 
even a neighboring veterinarian. The buyer naturally will get 
diseased stock and will declare the tuberculin test as a farce, as 
well as to get him averse to the entire test. 
The tuberculin test, as a whole, is a delicate matter, even in 
the hands of the experienced, and is only accepted by great au¬ 
thorities merely as an arbitrary way of detecting tuberculosis, in 
view of the fact that we have no other available satisfactory 
means of detecting the dread disease, let alone leaving it in the 
hands of the layman and inexperienced. 
Many dishonest dealers, being prompted by dishonest de¬ 
signs, have learned enough about the tuberculin test, and will 
“ load ” (common expression for injecting tuberculin before test¬ 
ing) their cattle, and thus the tuberculin tester who is experi¬ 
enced will not find the pre-injection abnormal rise in tempera¬ 
ture, and thus again pass a diseased animal for healthy. 
Such conditions exist, although few care to admit that such 
practices occur. If such conditions would exist in a few States of 
the Union, especially in those States that have no “ tuberculosis 
laws,” is it a wonder that we cannot eradicate the disease, yea, 
not even keep it under control ? 
Would it not be a good idea to take the tuberculin testing out 
of the hands of these “ cow-testers,” and even out of the hands of 
the private practitioner? 
The Federal Bureau of Animal Industry could have a depart¬ 
ment of tuberculin testing in which veterinarians would do noth¬ 
ing else, and depending on nobody but the government, and do 
the testing of cattle for intra- and inter-State import and export, 
the same as exists a department of meat inspection. 
This would be a radical way of eradicating the disease. 
The writer suggests that the International Commission on the 
Control of Bovine Tuberculosis would take this matter into con- 
