ABSTRAcrs AND REPORTS.

colic was 4'21 of the average strength in 1910, as against 4'05 in 1909, and 3'72 in 1908. The information collected during the past year appears to support the view put forward in previous reports that watering has a great influence on the production of disorders of the stomach and intestines.

Only one case of glanders occurred among army horses in 1910, viz., in an officer's charger which was kept in a private stable. There were seven isolated cases of anthrax, five of them occurring among animals fed on imported oats.

Anti-strangles serum continued to be used during the year, the total number of hurses thus treated with a view to prevention having been 1200.

Unfortunately the figures given in the Report do not enable one to form a clear estimate of the success of this treatment. Ninety-nine of the horses which received serum subsequently developed an attack of strangles, but it is pointed out that in thirty·one of these cases the disease showed itself within eight days after the serum injection, and it is suggested that this fact indicates infection prior to the treatment. The figures, however, show that only four horses developed the disease in less than six days after the injection of serum, the remainin!! fifty-one horses having been attacked between eight and fifteen days after inoculation. These facts are calculated to raise serious misgivings as to the actual value of serum in the prevention of strangles.

Not the least interesting part of the Report is that which gives the results of trials of the" new operation" for the relief of roaring. During the year forty·four horses were operated upon, and of these eighteen were improved, thirteen were not improved, eleven were too recent to be tested, and two died (septic pneumonia). All the animals described as "improved" were able to perform their work without distress, and two appeared to have completely recovered.

THE CAMPAIGN A~AINST THE WARBLE-FLY IN DENMARK.

EFFORTS to destroy warble·flies were first made in the Skjaerum district about ten years ago. The following is a brief account of the progress made, the manner in which the campaign is carried on, and the results obtained.

It was early in 1900 that the question of destroying warble-flies first cropped up at the general meeting of dairy farmers, and it was agreed to institute a campaign against them. Four years later the author informed the members of the Dairy Society that nearly twenty years previously a campaign against the flies had been suggested at a meeting of the land­owners in Jutland, and the Agricultural Society had been requested to take the matter up. Here and there individual efforts were made, but it is not known with what results.

If the author remembers correctly, in 1902 the Minister for Agriculture sent a circular to all the local authorities calling attention to the importance of the destruction of the warble-fly. No information is obtainable as to whether this circular was put into effect or not. The author remembers,

ABSTRACTS AND REPORTS. 249

however, having read in a local paper that the local authority had provided tweezers, which were served out to farmers for use in destroying the fly.

When the attempt in the Skjaerum district was mooted, all were agreed that the campaign would yield the best results if carried out by the dairy farmers. The results of the last four years have shown that this was true.

The plan of action was as follows. The district comprises an area of about three square miles and is divided into fifteen districts with twenty to thirty farms. To these farms ten men were appointed, and each was provided with a list of the animals placed under his charge. On this list were to be entered the cows, young stock, and larvre, and also during the last year the number of animals purchased from outside. Each man had a certain number of animals under his care, and his duty was to remove all ripe larvre. The tweezers mentioned above were used for the most part for the removal of these. Each man had to inspect the portion of the herd assigned to him from four to six times during the summer. The first inspection was made fourteen days before the animals were sent to pasture, the second immediately before or after they were turned out, and the re­mainder at intervals of two or three weeks as long as larvre were found. The larvre that were removed were destroyed. The work was paid by the day.

In 1906 the Danish Department of Agriculture published a small pam­phlet by Professor J. E. V. Boas, entitled The Warblejly and the Means of Combatillg It. ThIS contained an account of the development and life­history of the fly.

Last year only five or six men were required for the destruction of the iarvre, although the herds were practically unchanged.

In order to obtain good results, only trustworthy and intelligent people should be employed.

In one case a man who the previous year had charge of a very large herd had entirely freed it from the fly. He had not only pressed out the ripe larvre, but had also opened the less developed lesions and destroyed the larvre. He stated that in this way he was able to do in two visits what had taken four or five before.

During the period 1902-10 the number of cows treated averaged about 2200, and the number of young animals about qoo. The number of larvre destroyed dropped from 22,394 in 1902 to 3875 in 1910. The decrease was not regular, there being two increases in the years 1907 and 1909.

As already mentioned, the author attempted to discover how many fresh animals were introduced into a district, as it appeared to him that this was a great hindrance to the complete destruction of the fly. From 1906 -onwards each man was provided with two lists, one containing the animals belonging to the herds and the other new purchases. In this wayan accurate registration was secured.

From the figures obtained in this way during the period 1906-10 it was calculated that the number of larvre per animal of the existing herds varied from 'II to I'8,-the lowest figure being that for 1910 and the highest that for 1907. The corresponding figures for animals purchased from outside the area varied from 17'4 per animal to 13'1,-the figure for 19IO being 16. These figures show that if the surrounding districts undertook the cam­paign the fly could be exterminated in three or four years.

From a knowledge of the conditions it can scarcely be doubted that money expended in destroying the fly pays good interest. The cost per animal varied from 7'5 ore in 1902 to 2'7 ore 1 in 1910.

In Professor Boas' pamphlet the depreciation in value per animal per annum owing to perforation of the hide, decrease in the quantity of milk, etc., was estimated at 3 kronen. If the number of animals in Denmark

1 100 ore= l krone=ls. Oid.

ABSTRACTS AND REPORTS.

be taken as 2,000,000, this means a loss of 6,000,000 kronen per annum that is avoidable.

The results obtained in the Skjaerum district show that if the destruction of the fly is carried out energetically and methodically good results may be expected with ·certainty. (Villemoes, Zeitschr. j Fleisch. u. Milchhygiene, Vol. XXI., NO.9, June 19II, pp. 277-279.)

MALTA FEVER IN THE DOMESTICATED ANIMALS.

MALTA fever is a specific, inoculable, contagious disease, common to practi­cally all the domesticated animals and to man, and is caused by the micrococcus melitensis (Bruce).

The disease principally affects the goat, in which animal it is responsible for many cases of abortion.

Historical.-The disease was first described by Marston in 1859. This author saw a number of cases among the inhabitants of Malta and was himself attacked. In 1879 a very fatal epidemic at Catania was described by Tomaselli. From this time onwards the disease was recognised at practically all parts of the Mediterranean littoral and it was known under the following synonyms: Rock fever, Naples fever, Crete fever, Cyprus fever, Levant fever, Mediterranean fever.

The causal organism, the micrococcus melitensis, was discovered and described by Bruce in 1887, and ten years later Widal's agglutination test was applied to the diagnosis of the disease by Wright. In 1904 a Commission was appointed by the British Government to investigate the disease, and it was then found that the principal vehicle of infection for the human subject was goat's milk. The discovery was made by Zammit, who, while testing the agglutinating power of the serum of six goats, found that five of them agglutinated the micrococcus melitensis and that the organism was present in the blood of two of them. The blood of forty-six goats was then examined and it high agglutinating power found in seven of them. The prophylactic measures put into force furnished an indirect proof of the danger run by human beings in using the milk of infected goats. In May 1906 the banning of goat's milk and cheese made from the same material, as part of the rations of the entire garrison, which was decimated by the disease, led to a con­siderable decrease in the number of cases among the military, whereas, among the civil population, which was not put under this regulation, the incidence of the disease did not vary at all. Other authors showed that in addition to infection by the milk the disease might be contracted by simple contact with goats.

In France the disease appears to have been observed for the first time in 1901 by Roustan, who encountered an epidemic at Cannes. It is unfortunate that in this outbreak serum diagnosis was not resorted to. In 1908 Wurtz, Danlos, and Tenon encountered an outbreak in a model goat dairy near Paris. d' Aubert, Cantaboule and Thibault described, in 1909, an outbreak originating among the goats at Saint-Martial and Lagrifoul; Arnal and Roger published an account of a small epidemic at Saint-Bauzille-de-Montmel.

Investigations carried out by the French Government brought to light some important facts. The disease, instead of being limited to a few villages, was found. to be widely spread over the whole of the department of Gard. More than 400 cases were observed in the human subject in less than a year. The disease was found in'animals other than the goat (sheep, dogs, horses, fowls, and ducks). Finally, the principal clinical features of the