ABSTRACTS.

4. Similar negative results were obtained with two rabbits killed 100 days after ingesting embryos.

From these experiments it would appear that the liver fluke cannot develop from embryos introduced directly into the host. (Railliet, Moussu, and Henry, Receuil de MM. Vet., Vol. XC., No. I, 15th January 1913, pp. 1-6.)

THE PROPHYLAXIS, SERUM THERAPY, AND SERO­VACCINATION OF CONTAGIOUS AGALAXIA.

IT would appear that this disease has not attracted very much attention in France, not because the losses for which it is responsible are inconsiderable, but, apparently, because it attacks sheep and goats, to attend to which the veterinarian is seldom called upon, because it has little tendency to spread outside certain districts, and because it is particularly in mountainous dis­tricts that the disease is met with.

In the author's opinion special interest attaches to the disease because of it!> peculiar nature, there being no other disease that in the least degree resembles it. The name is not at all descriptive of the disease, as the mammary gland is one of the least frequent seats of lesions, but it is retained by the author as it has the sanction of custom, and he has not been able to suggest any sufficiently precise term to replace it. The difficulty of find­ing a succinct term for the disease is realised when it is remembered that the condition is a general one, with lesions in the mammary gland, eye, joints, and skin.

References to the disease in French literature are of the scantiest. In Switzerland the condition has been studied by Hess and Guillbeau, and in Italy, where the disease is of the utmost importance, it has received attention from Oreste, Marra, Celli, and de Blasi.

Authorities agree that it is practically impossible to calculate the loss occasioned by the disease, but that the mortality is insignificant.

In France the disease is certainly less widely spread than in Italy, but sometimes it assumes a very severe form, causing a mortality of 30-40 per cent., besides occasioning great loss of condition in the survivors.

In the author's opinion the common method of natural infection is by way of the alimentary canaL

In view of 'the fact that there is in the majority of cases no escape of secretion from an infected mammary gland during the development of the lesions, the question arises as to how the food becomes contaminated. The author has obtained evidence that the lachrymal secretion from eyes show­ing no ulceration of the cornea is virulent, and he believes that it is through the medium of this secretion that the food becomes contaminated.

According to Celli and de Blasi, the virus reaches its maximum degree of virulence during the first stage of the disease, and Marra states that the milk is not virulent save at the onset of fever. The evidence obtained by the author is at variance, however, with these views, as he has been able to show that the mammary secretion may be infective for months, even up to the time when there is complete atrophy of the gland-in one case a period of seven months.

That milk drawn from the gland does not rapidly lose virulence was shown by the fact that some infective milk was kept for eight days at room temperature during the month of August, and when this was injected into the teat of a goat a typical attack of the disease was produced.

68 ABSTRACTS.

In every flock visited by the author the occurrence of the disease was observed to follow the introduction of fresh animals from outside. Clear evidence was obtained that the disease may be carried from one flock to another through the agency of the attendants. Upon these facts the author bases the following prophylactic measures :-

I. Fresh animals should always be isolated and subjected to a very care­ful inspection, particular attention being paid to the mammary gland, eyes, joints, and skin.

2. Any animal showing a lesion at all suggestive of agalaxia should be immediately isolated. The most dangerous sources of infection are animals affected with ulcerative keratitis, and it is most economical to send such animals to the butcher.

3. A careful examination of the udder will always reveal the lesions, even old ones, which are as fruitful a source of danger as recent ones.

4. In a flock kept for milking systematic examination of the udders should be rigorously carried out, and disinfection of the milker's hands is absolutely necessary.

5. The shepherd's boots should be disinfected, or, preferably, special attendants should be told off for infected animals.

6. No animals should be sold save to the butcher, and all movement of the flock should be forbidden until one month after the diseased animals have recovered or have been eliminated.

The author had opportunities of carrying out experiments regarding serum therapy and sero-vaccination against the disease.

In the first flock there were thirty-four diseased and eighty healthy animals. Of these latter sixty were given 5 cc. of protective serum sub­cutaneously, the others being kept as controls. Three weeks later seven of the control animals were affected, but all those that had received a dose of serum had escaped infection. In view of the fact that the immunity con­ferred by the serum was effective for two to four weeks only, an attempt was made to prolong the period by giving an inoculation of serum and virus mixed. The sixty animals were therefore given 5 ce. of serum mixed with 1\ cc. of virulent pleural exudate from an experimental case. Two months later it was reported that none of the protected animals had become infected, while the control animals had.

A second flock was divided into two lots of 100 animals each, which were placed in folds about 200 yards apart.

• The disease broke out in a severe form in one of the folds, and within three weeks forty of the animals were dead, and the others were. in a very poor condition. The flock in the second fold remained free of the disease. Contagion was, however, inevitable, as the same persons attended both lots of animals. The whole of the healthy batch received 5 cc. of serum sub­cutaneously, but a week later two animals were found to be diseased. In the author's opinion these animals were in the incubation stage when the serum injections were given, and the fact that they contracted the disease showed that the fold was infected.

The same day fifty healthy adult animals in the fold were given a dose of serum and virus as in the case of the first flock mentioned. At the request of the owner ten of these animals were placed with the infected batch.

None of the vaccinated animals had contracted the disease two months later. Even those placed with the diseased animals had remained free.

A third flock numbering 110 ewes contained two diseased animals. Sero­vaccination was practised on the whole flock, and no fresh cases had appeared up to three months later.

ABSTRACTS.

From these experiments the author draws the following conclusions:­I. The anti·agalactic serum possesses very obvious protective powers.

69

2. It appears to be ineffectual when administered during the period of incubation, or after the appearance of symptoms.

3. Sero-vaccination prolongs the immunity conferred by serum alone. The duration of the immunity so conferred has not been established, but it is certainly sufficiently lasting to allow an epidemic to die out. (Carre, Rex). Gen. de MM. Vet., Vol. XX., No. 238, 15th November 1912, pp. 529-538.)

STUDIES IN CANINE DISTEMPER.

IN the portion of this paper devoted to a historical review of the literature that has appeared on the subject of this disease particular stress is laid upon the recent work of Ferry and M'Gowan, who, working quite independently of each other, discovered bacilli resembling in many respects the organism isolated by the present authors, who also made their discovery independently and almost contemporaneously.

The bacillus in question, to which the name bacillus bronchisepticus has been given, was isolated early in 1910, before the publications of Ferry and M'Gowan appeared. Very frequent references to the work of these authors are scattered through the present paper.

In all about 150 dogs were utilised, of which ninety were known to have been infected with distemper. In reporting the bacterial findings of these cases they have been divided into six groups: (I) those in the incubation period; (2) those in the first week of disease; (3) those in the second week; (4) chronic cases, three weeks or more; (5) fatal cases; (6) recovered cases. Typical selectt!d cases from each of these groups are given in detail in tabular form.

The primary purpose of the authors was to isolate and identify any bacteria encountered with any degree of regularity in cases of the disease, but the conviction was soon forced upon them that only one bacillus could be considered as the essential factor in its production. They nevertheless adhered to their intention, and records are given of all bacteria encountered except those appearing only occasionally.

The number of dogs belonging to the first group that were examined was small, but evidence was obtained that before the appearance of any symptoms the bacillus may be present in the respiratory tract in large numbers. There is some difference of opinion among the authors that have examined this organism as to the initial focus of development, and they have found that while in some cases it would appear to be the trachea and large bronchioles, it may also occur in the nose.

In cases in which it was encountered in the trachea the first symptom was a cough, and in cases in which the organism was localised at first in the nose the primary symptom was nasal discharge.

In the group of dogs in the first week of illness the bacillus was obtained in pure culture and generally in enormous numbers from the lungs. Although in no instance was the bacillus isolated from the blood in this group, it was found to be present in the liver and spleen in some cases. ~

The bacillus was isolated in pure culture from the lungs of fourteen out of seventeen alllmais in the second week. In six of the fourteen the bacillus was contained in the nasal discharge, and in two of them in a state of purity. From three cases in this group the organism was not isolated, but these were