EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 281 



ment fixation tests in the diagnosis of hemorrhagic septicemia. En- 

 couraging results have been obtained with the complement fixation tests. 

 The greatest trouble lies in the delaj^ed non-specific reaction caused by 

 normal serum. An attempt is being made to overcome this difficulty at 

 the present writing. The agglutination test has given only negative 

 results. 



"The following trips have been taken during the year : 



October 5th and 27th, accompanied Dr. E. T. Hallman to Howell to 

 treat herd for sterility. 



April 1st, visited dairy farm near Coldwater to outline treatment for 

 abortion and apply abortion vaccine treatment. 



June 15th-lGth, collected abortion material from Parker and Webb 

 packinghouse at Detroit. 



CASE REPORTS. 



"Sterility: This cow gave birth to her first normal heifer calf May 

 28, 1916. About six weeks after calving she w^as noticed to be in oes- 

 trum and was served by the herd bull on the same day. She was noticed 

 to be in oestrum on the following day and for several days succeeding. 

 The ovaries were palpated through the rectum and each found to con- 

 tain a large cyst. The cysts were removed by pressure. The cow was 

 placed on pasture during the summer and was not observed until Sep- 

 tember. The ovaries were again palpated, found to be cystic and the 

 cysts were removed. This procedure was carried out about once every 

 month. Oestrum occurred weekly. On March 22, 1917, ovariotomy was 

 performed and the right ovary was removed. The ovary contained two 

 cysts about one inch in diameter. The cystic fluid was examined bac- 

 teriologically for organisms, with negative results. On April 30th, the 

 cow was slaughtered. The uterus was normal in size and contained 

 very little mucous exudate. The remaining left ovary contained a cyst 

 about 1.5 inches in diameter. A bacteriological examination of the 

 cystic fluid revealed no organisms. The same was made of the uterus, 

 pelvic lymph glands and udder. A few micrococci and staphylococci 

 were found in the uterus and lymph glands and micrococci and Bad. 

 abortus from the udder tissue. Only two colonies of Bact. adortus were 

 found on the entire number (25) of plates made from the udder tissue. 



"Granular Vaginitis : This herd of dairy cows came to our attention 

 through Dr. McKercher and Dr. Keck of Lansing. The owner reported 

 that he was having considerable trouble to get his cows to conceive. He had 

 had no abortion in his herd. On examination of the animals, it was 

 found that nearly every cow, including the calves, were afl'ected with 

 granular vaginitis. Nine cows were selected indiscriminately through- 

 out the herd and the blood tested by means of the agglutination and com- 

 plement fixation tests for infectious abortion. Not one of the samples 

 tested gave a positive reaction. 



"Acute Interstitial Nepritis of the Equine: A report concerning a 

 number of interesting cases of this disease in suckling colts has been ac- 

 cepted for publication by the Journal of the American Veterinary Medi- 

 cal Association, under joint authorship of Dr. E. T. Hallman and the 

 writer." (I. F. Huddleson). 



The abortion problem is one of the big problems confronting Michigan 

 agriculture, perhaps the biggest menace to animal industry. Mr. Hud- 



