286 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



" Tlu> symptoms of Ibis disease are well defined. They consist of general 

 emaciation so extreme as to indicate that all of the superficial fat of the body 

 had been used, leaving the sliin appai'ently attached to the bones. At the out- 

 set the head is carried low with drooping ears. The coat stares and the ap- 

 petite falls oft". The animals drink less and less as the disease advances, until 

 finally they refuse to drink altogether. As the appetite fails it becomes de- 

 praved. The cattle eat such materials as wood, leather, rope or bark from 

 stumps. The chewing of bones is quite common, as it is in many other ail- 

 ments of the digestive tract. From the beginning the bowels show a tendency 

 toward constipation, whicli increases. As the disease advances the gambi*el 

 joints or hocks approach each other, while walking. The animal places one 

 foot in front of the other, describing a half circle with each hind foot, at each 

 step. . . . 



" The third stomach, or n)anifolds, seemed to be the seat of the disease and 

 here extensive lesions were often found. Where the disease had so far i)ro- 

 gressed that the animal was scarcely able to stand, the contents of the mani- 

 folds were dry, hard and seemingly attached, as if glued, to the lining mem- 

 brane. When the autopsy took place after doses of oil and gruel bad been 

 given, there were found openings in the contents of the stomach through which 

 food could pass, but where the examination was made prior to the beginning 

 of the laxative treatment, the contents of the stomach seemed to be one solid 

 mass, filling the various divisions between the folds of the stomach. Even after 

 the laxative treatment was well under way, when post-mortems were held, 

 masses of dried, hardened feed were still found occupying the spaces between 

 the folds. When the disease had progressed so far that the animals were too 

 weak to stand, the lining membrane of this third stomach seemed to slough off 

 in a slimy condition ; in other cases the divisions of the manifold itself were 

 readily torn by slight pressure of the fingers. The gall bladder was almost 

 invariably enlarged, sometimes to twice its natural size." 



No specific agent has been incriminated as the cause of the disease. It ap- 

 peared to be due to several conditions that prevail, namely, dry June grass 

 pasture followed by dry fodder in winter, ingestion of more or less sand, in- 

 sufficient water, the presence of great numbers of horn flies, ergoted rye, and 

 cold winter quarters with insufficient attention. 



All animals able to stand on arrival at the station and fed laxative feed re- 

 covered and made astonishing gains after the return of the appetite and the 

 ability and willingness to drink. Observations about West Olive confirmed 

 the idea that the removal of cows from their own districts to higher lands, 

 where more abundant rations could be fed them, usually resulted in recovery. 

 Cows which had been pastured continuously on clover pastui'e, or on any suc- 

 culent pasture, did not have the symptoms of this disease in the late fall. The 

 rule seemed invariable that the cows then sick with the disease were only such 

 as had been running on dry pasture where the grass was thin, ripe, and dried 

 iip. It sometimes transpired that cows which had been pastured on succulent 

 pasture when placed on very dry feed succumbed to the disease late in the 

 winter or in the spring following. 



Contagious abortion of cattle, A. Nuesch (Schtveis. Arch. Tierheilk., 50 

 (1908), No. 5, pp. 323-326; aJ)S. in Vet. Bee, 22 {1909), No. 1097, p. 48).— The 

 author has checked this disease by the internal administration of carbolic acid, 

 and recommends 1| to 2f pts. of a 1 per cent solution of carbolic acid in water 

 daily in a single dose. Both pregnant cows and those which have already 

 aborted are thus treated, and the daily medication is continued from 5 to 10 

 days. No unfavorable effects of the drug were observed. 



