* 
50 STORRS AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 
rious one, but one which is capable of solution. The first 
methods that were used were undoubtedly too severe, for, as 
is well known, they involved the slaughter and absolute de- 
struction of the flesh of every animal that reacted to the tuber- 
culin test. Such a method was too expensive to make it at all 
feasible. When we remember that from forty to fifty per cent. 
of the animals in certain countries will respond to the tuber- 
culin test, it is perfectly manifest that such a measure would 
there be ruin to the dairy industry. It is simply an impossi- 
bility, and that it is an impossibility has been clearly shown by 
the fact that in two instances in which an attempt was made to 
enforce such laws, namely, in Massachusetts and in Belgium, 
it was necessary to abandon them. Moreover, for reasons 
which have already been pointed out, it is apparently needless. 
Another suggestion has been adopted in certain European 
countries, namely, that the reacting animals must be separated 
from the non-reacting animals, and must be then brought to 
slaughter within a year. This gives the farmer time for proper 
fattening of the animals and for bringing them to the con- 
dition of slaughter so that he need not have the loss that 
would result from immediate slaughter. Of course he must 
run the risk at the end that when slaughtered the animals will 
be found so decidedly tuberculous that their flesh will be con- 
demned, and thus the expense of the fattening will be a loss. 
But, inasmuch as in European countries the flesh is not all con- 
demned from incipient tuberculosis, it will in most cases result 
that the animals thus fattened will yield a tolerable return to 
the farmer and not be total losses. 
But even this less radical measure appears to be unneces- 
sary and is not very highly regarded in the different countries 
of Europe. The fact is, that the more experience accumu- 
lates the more we learn that many of these incipient cases of 
_ tuberculosis are only temporary, and that the animals in ques- 
tion, if kept in a favorable condition, will soon recover and 
may live many years of useful life. It is, of course, not very 
easy to give accurate data in this regard, but the best data ob- 
tained have been those of Prof. Bang in Copenhagen, where 
for several years there has been under very close observation a 
large herd of animals which had at the outset a very high per 
cent. of tuberculosis. The animals were all inoculated with 
tuberculin and subsequently kept under observation for sev- 
eral years. Many of them after a time ceased to respond to 
the subsequent tests. In later years, as they were slaughtered 
