much needless repetition. The content of this advanced instruction may be varied to suit local conditions. A by-product which puts a premium on thorough high-school instruction is the stimulating of better teaching in high schools. Once the word gets around that an impersonal and objective evaluation is being put on high-school chemistry training, teachers and superintendents are anxious to know how their work ranks with that of other schools. Meritorious training is thus recognized and shoddy teaching brought to the light of day. Other values that may receive briefer mention are: by giving placement examinations year after year the general quality of the student body of one year may be compared a t the very beginning of the year with that of other years and the general trend become known. With more extended use it will be learned what things included in the placement examination have predictive value and what things have none. By knowing these we may learn that success in studying chemistry and other courses is only in part intellectual and that other qualities are equal or greater determinants. If these were accurately known and measured, educational administration could be more efficient and less wasteful than a t present. The individual in choosing an educational program and a vocation for l i e would be vastly helped. But that is the end of the road. We are now only a t the beginning and a long way intervenes.
Farmers Oppose Tuberculin Test. Cows as well as monkeys are doing their share in bringing science into the courtroom. ~ h ' eforcible ejection of Dr. Clark H. Hays, chief of the state bureau of animal industry, from the farm of John Burke of Elkhorn, Nebraska, an June 30, has resulted in contributions from farmers all over the state toward a fund t o test their rights under the Nebraska law for the eradication of tuberculosis in livestock. Burke, according to Dr. Havs. refused to allow his stock to be subjected to the tuberculosis test in accordance with state law. This test consists of injecting an extract of dead tubercle bacilli under the skin of the cow. Fever, swelling and inflammation a t the point of injection cofistitute a positive test. Cattle with a positive test are condemned and k i e d . The slaughter of thousands of cattle each year under the Nebraska law and similar laws in other states seems to be the basis of the farmers' rebellion. Their complaints that many of the cows which are slaughtered following a positive readion to the test are found to be without traces of tuberculosis are in line with a series of investigations by Prof. E. G. Hastings and Dr. B. A. Besch, professors of bacteriology and veterinary science a t the University of Wisconsin. They reported to the Society of American Bacteriologists a t their December, 1924, meeting that in twenty Wisconsin counties in three years, 387,180 cattle were tested, and 5888 of these gave a positive reaction. Yet, on post mortem examination no evidence of tuberculosis could he found in 1279 of the positive cases. In same of these latter they found a germ very similar to the one which causes tuberculosis, except that it was apparently harmless. Prof. Hastings and Dr. Beach believe that this germ causes cattle to react positively and is the reason for many of them being needlesly slaughtered.-Science Service.
