160 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Autopsy : about 8 hours. 



Post-morteui. Emaciation slight, no bloating, skin of teats peeled off 

 easily; conjunctival discharge slight, nasal discharge considerable; 

 nasal mucosa congested and covered with croupous exudate; sinuses 

 open but membrane congested; horns easily detached; horn core greatly 

 reddened; oral, phai'yngeal and laryngeal mucosa diphtheritic; trachea, 

 bronchi and bronchiols lined with thick, yellow croupous membrane 

 easily separated as a cast of the tubes. Lungs showed interlobular 

 emphysema; there were numerous subepicardial petechiae and ecchy- 

 mous; cholecyst distended with dark, greenish bile and bile ducts full 

 on section of liver; kidneys congested; spleen normal; rumen about 

 half distended with normal ingesta and only post-mortem changes; 

 reticulum and abomasum same; abomasum greatly congested and slight 

 catarrh of mucosa and slight capillary hemorrhage; small and large 

 intestine same; (blood-stained feces had been passed). 



From the croupous tracheal exudate both M. pyogenes aureus and 

 albus were isolated. 



On May 30, 1911, in response to a call from Dr. Waldron of Tecumseh, 

 I visited the farm of Mr. Wm. Hogan of Clinton to investigate an 

 outbreak of a disease in steers. Dr. Waldron had pronounced the disease 

 malignant catarrh. The herd affected consisted of sixty western 

 steers bought in the fall of 1910. One steer died shortly after purchase, 

 but no observations were made on the circumstances attending death. 

 At the time of my visit, five steers had died and one was sick. The 

 remainder had been shipped for slaughter, and were in excellent con- 

 dition. 



Dr. Waldron said that he had a few cases of this nature in his prac- 

 tice each year, and usually only a few animals in each herd were 

 affected. It did not appear to be contagious, and there was nothing 

 in the history of the cases that suggested a cause, either immediate or 

 predisposing. The cases occurred at any time of the year. The symp- 

 toms were sudden onset, lack of appetite, fever, dyspnoea, swollen 

 conjunctiva, with at first excessive lachi'ymation, then purulent dis- 

 charge, opacity of cornea with blindness, nasal discharge of thick, 

 yellowish nature, and death invariably after about one week. No 

 treatment of any value. Oatarrh of the abomasum and small intestine, 

 with other stomachs normal found on post-mortem. 



The only case left on the farm at the time of my visit was a red poll 

 steer in good flesh. He showed slight purulent discharge from eye, 

 cornea partly opaque, thick yellow nasal discharge slight, breathing 

 slow, regular and slightly labored, diarrhea. An attempt to catch the 

 animal resulted in increased respirations and snorting. A piece of 

 diphtheritic membrane was thus blown from one nostril and secured, 

 before it touched the ground, in a sterile dish. Animal recovered. 



A culture of both M. pyogenes aureus and albus was secured from the 

 membrane. 



A calf inoculated with bouillon suspension of membrane subcutane- 

 ously and treated with portion of the membrane smeared on the nasal 

 mucosa developed only a slight abscess at point of inoculation. A 

 rabbit was killed in 24 hours by intraperitoneal injection of bouillon 

 suspension of membrane and a guinea pig in 48 hours by subcutaneous 

 injection. The only point of note in the bacteriological study is the 



