228 
editorial. 
methods which have been maintained in the Bay State, and 
thus be enabled to shape future legislation relative thereto. 
That the experts-Drs. Harold C. Ernst, Theobald Smith, Geo. 
N. Kinnell, F. S. Billings, and Charles R. Wood—should have 
differed so widely .in their estimates of the accuracy and value 
of the serum is to be greatly regretted, as the public at large are 
slow to endorse any scientific proposition which is the subject 
of internal dissension. A majority of the experts (Drs. Ernst, 
Smith, and Kinnell) regard the result as phenomenally accurate, 
the percentage of error being so infinitesimal as to thoroughly 
establish its practical reliability as a diagnostic for the disease 
in our herds without the aid of physical signs. A minority of 
the experts (Drs. Billings and Wood) have failed to appreciate 
its prophetic constancy, and have disregarded the wording an 
spirit of the resolution which called them into being, and, ignor- 
incr the wonderful lack of error in the test, have promulgated 
their own theories and opinions in lieu of the naked facts of ^ 
experiment. The act did not ask for the display of anybody s 
theories, but it did ask if the reaction in a given bovine was 
caused by tubercular infection, and the autopsy said that it was. 
If such meat and the milk from such a cow is fit for human con¬ 
sumption is another matter, and did not enter into the question 
then under consideration. 
As a scientific test of the value of tuberculin to detect the 
presence of tuberculosis, even in the most initiatory stages, the 
reports referred to—which will be printed in full in the next 
issue of the REVIEW —must be considered a perfect vindication 
of its wonderful accuracy and reliability for practical work. 
The policy of the State in the matter of reimbursement is a 
subject with which we have nothing to do. 
GET READY FOR NASHVILLE. 
This was the burden of our song last month, is this month, 
and will be next month, and we present in the news depart¬ 
ment of this issue of the Review additional reasons why you 
should not disregard this injunction, for, although far from com- 
