A TUBERCULOUS HERD. 
643 
ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 
A TUBERCULOUS HERD-TEST WITH TUBERCULIN. 
By Austin Peters, M.R.C.V.S., Boston, Mass. 
Chief Inspector of Cattle for the New York State Board of Health, during the Winter 
of 1892 and ’93. 
The following account of a tuberculous herd may prove in¬ 
teresting to the many readers of the AMERICAN VETERINARY 
REVIEW, as well as instructive to those who pooh-pooh the 
idea that any number approaching 100 per cent, of a herd of 
cattle can be affected with this malady, provided the number of 
animals on the farm exceeds one or two. It also aids in sus¬ 
taining the statement made, at an International Veterinary 
Congress, in Europe, a few years ago, on which occasion the 
Editor-in-Chief of the American Veterinary Review said 
that “there were herds of cattle in the United States where 
fifty per cent, of the animals were affected with tuberculosis,” 
which statement has since been twisted so as to misquote him 
and have it read, “that fifty per cent, of the cattle in the United 
States are tuberculous.” The latter is a condition of affairs 
that every one knows does not exist in this country, and it is 
generally believed that the Editor referred to never made or 
hinted at such a statement. 
The tuberculin test is of interest, as it sheds additional light 
upon the value of tuberculin as a diagnostic agent, particularly 
as the herd was a good sized one, and all the creatures tested 
were afterward slaughtered for autopsy, the chief objection to be 
made to such a lot of cattle being the fact that there were so 
few healthy ones among them to show the resistance of those 
that are not tuberculous to this agent. 
The herd of cattle, an account of which is given below, was 
first discovered by Dr. Cooper Curtice, in the early autumn of 
1892, while engaged in the duties of Inspector of Cattle, for the 
New York Board of Health, in Westchester county, and was 
first seen by the writer October 14th. At that time it consisted 
of forty-two cows, fourteen heifers between the ages of calves of 
