EEPORT OF STATE VETEklNARIAK. 567 



I'he disease is infectious but not contagious; that is, the germs live 

 Oh the plants on which the animals feed or in the water they drink and 

 thus gain entrance into the body, but they are not conveyed from one 

 animal to another by merely coming close together. 



The germs are usually found on the grasses growing upon low rich 

 land. The spore or seed of the germ is very hardy and may be dried in 

 the making of hay and produce the trouble when it is fed in the winter. 

 Most cases occur in summer and fitll. 



The symptoms are sudden onset with high fever, difficult breathing, 

 stiffness, lameness, colicy pains, loss of appetite and great depression. 

 Swellings occur upon the body, about the thighs, chest, neck or shoulder, 

 and these have a peculiar crackle when pressed upon by the finger. They 

 are filled with gas. The course of the disease is very rapid, only lastmg 

 from a few hours to a few days. Young, well-kept cattle from four 

 months to two years old are the favorite subjects, although older cattle 

 may be attacked. Very few recover, and treatment is useless in the 

 majority of cases. 



Every animal dying of the disease should be burned. 



On farms where cases occasionally occur, it is advisable to vaccinate. 

 The vaccine may be obtained from several reliable firms, and its use has 

 passed beyond all experimental stages so that it may be relied upon to 

 greatly diminish the loss. It is easily applied. 



R. A. CRAIG, 

 Assistant State Veterinarian. 



The region in which most cases have occurred is in the northwestern 

 part of the state in the lowlands drained by the Kankakee. The condi- 

 tions are peculiarly favorable for the growth of black leg germs here, 

 and it will be several years before it can be gotten under complete con- 

 trol. The vallej's along the Ohio are also more or less infected. 



Oftentimes these outbreaks were reported as genuine anthrax. The 

 clinical history, symptomatology, and pathology of the two are so diffe'rent 

 that their differentiation was not difficult. No case of genuine anthrax 

 was observed. 



INFECTIOUS OPHTHALMIA IN CATTLE. 



An eye disease of cattle has occurred with greater or less frequency 

 since the year 1891. While it is not a disease that is fatal in its effects 

 it tJoes cause much loss of flesh during the period the eyes are affected, 

 and often such impairment of vision as to make very considerable losses 

 to a herd. During the summer the reports of the presence of the disease 

 became so numerous that the following newspaper bulletin was offered: 



