BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS. 
9 
^erm, while more people die annually from consumption than 
from war, pestilence and famine. 
Tuberculin is made from pure culture of the tubercle bacil¬ 
lus, highly concentrated, until a maximum amount of its pto¬ 
maines are developed, then filtered through porcelain, the filtered 
fluid being heated to a high temperature to destroy the vitality 
of : any and all germs. The German or imported tuberculin is 
put up in five-gram bottles, and has cost as high as $1000 a 
pint. Glycerine and carbolic acid are then added to reduce it 
to a ten per cent, solution, of which from two to four c.c. are in¬ 
jected under the skin of the neck or shoulders of cattle by 
means of a sterilized hypodermic syringe. The average normal 
temperature of a cow is from 101° (38.3 C.) to 102° F. (38.8 C.) 
and the normal t|mperatures are taken before and at the time 
of injection, and tuberculous cattle respond by a rise of temper¬ 
ature usually from the tenth to the twentieth hour after injec¬ 
tion, a rise of 2° over the normal temperature after injection be¬ 
ing ground for suspicion, unless there is some physical disturb¬ 
ance such as cows being in heat or near calving; but if the an¬ 
imal is healthy, there should be no rise of temperature, and no 
possible injury to the cow. Very old cows do not respond to 
the test as readily as primiparas, and I have met with several 
badly diseased cows in which no reaction occurred, the system 
being so thoroughly saturated with the already-existing tuber¬ 
culin that the small amount injected had no apparent effect. 
Such cases can always be easily recognized, however, by phys¬ 
ical examination, and have only been tested during experimental 
work. 
The identity of tuberculosis in mankind and domestic ani¬ 
mals being fully demonstrated, and being highly infectious, we 
now know that it is communicable from animals to animals, 
from animals to man, and from man to animals in return. Mil¬ 
lions of the germs are in the air we breathe and in the milk we 
drink, so that inhalation, ingestion, inoculation and heredity, 
all contribute to disseminate the malady. Man is also liable to 
receive from the lower animals and do communicate to them 
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