262 EPITOME OF EVIDENCE ON PLEUEO-PNEUMONIA. 



Principal Williams, of the New Veterinary College, Edinburgh, 



called in, and examined. 



I think that such an inquiry into pleuro-pneumonia as is pro- 

 posed, if properly conducted, would tend to the good of the 

 country. I have had great experience in dealing with pleuro- 

 pneumonia. I could detect it from an elevation of tempera- 

 ture in the preliminary stages, taking into account the general 

 condition of the animal. I would give a diseased animal no 

 treatment except the pole-axe. There is no cure for it. I 

 speak on forty years' experience of it. I believe that pleuro- 

 pneumonia in all its stages is an incurable disease. There are 

 mild attacks and severe attacks. I am convinced about its 

 being an infectious disease. It is carried in the breath by 

 animals suffering from the disease. I am of opinion that 

 cohabitation is necessary in the gi^eat majority of instances. 

 There may be some very rare exceptions. It may be possible 

 to carry it from 200 to 800 yards ; — 300 yards I would put as 

 an outside limit. I do not say it would not be carried by 

 excreta as well as by the breath. I do not think it possible 

 for the disease to be carried to animals by a man who has been 

 in the neighbourhood of a diseased animal. I know what the 

 disease consists of, and have seen the actual organism that 

 causes it. I find this organism in the lymph and in the 

 tissue of the lung. It is a micrococcus and an organism that 

 requires oxygenation. It will grow in fibrous tissue in any 

 part of the body. I always find it, and I can grow it outside 

 the body. I have never inoculated an animal so as to produce 

 the disease. My only proof that it is the actual real organism 

 of the disease is that it is constantly present. It would 

 be a very important part of the investigation if you could 

 cultivate and produce an illimitable amount of inoculative 

 fluid. I would desire to experiment with the lymph itself. I 

 think the micrococcus is the cause of the disease, not the con- 

 sequence ; it is the cause undoubtedly. It grows in the tail to 

 an enormous extent when the tail is inoculated. It is in the 

 tail as well as in the lung. It is my opinion that the 

 micrococcus is the actual thing breathed out with the breath. 

 This disease is in all cases a fever. It leaves the animal im- 

 pervious to pleuro-pneumonia, but it does not do so without 

 leaving results. I think it leaves lung lesion. I think that an 

 animal that has had no lung lesion must have had no pleuro- 

 pneumonia. There is in my experience always some small spot. 

 I think that the introduction of the organism into the circu- 

 lation is the beginning of the fever, and you have the pre- 

 cedence of the blood-poisoning before you have any pleuro- 

 pneumonia evil. I think that this process of inoculation is not 



