VETERINARY MEDICINE. 381 



abortus. The abortin test iu the form and with the preparation recommended 

 by the English Commission is unreliable and misleading. 



" Encouraging results are obtained with a precipitated purified abortin by 

 intravenous application. The reaction is not absolutely specific as a high per- 

 centage of healthy animals react to the injection of abortin products. This 

 nonspecificity is more frequently observed with an ordinary plain abortin than 

 with our purified product. By means of the abortin test we can not decide 

 whether an animal has been recently infected and will abort, or whether it is 

 recovering from an iuvasiou with B. abortus." 



Bush sickness. — Field experimental and demonstration work, C. J. Reakes 

 and B. C. Aston (Jour. Agr. INeiv Zeal], 8 {1914), No. 2, pp. 160-165, figs. 2).— 

 The information gained from investigations carried on in continuation of those 

 previously noted (E. S. R., 30, p. 83) is summarized as follows: 



" The most susceptible class of dairying cattle, namely, first calf heifers, can be 

 kept healthy and made profitable for dairying purposes for at any rate a consider- 

 able time when grazed upon paddocks suitably top-dres.sed. . . . Animals 

 of the same age and class will develop bush sickness in a few mouths when 

 grazed upon similar land not top-dressed even with plenty of feed, good shelter, 

 and access to standing bush. Syrup of phosphate of iron in solution is a valu- 

 able curative agent when given daily over a sufficiently long period. Breeding 

 ewes grazed upon suitably top-dressed paddocks will remain healthy over a 

 much longer period than these animals will do when kept upon land not top- 

 dressed." 



Investig'ations of coital exanthema of cattle, Zwick and Gminder (Berlin. 

 Tierarztl. Wchnschr., 29 (1913), No. 36, pp. 637-640) .—The authors conclude 

 that the cause of this disease is not a filterable virus. The horse, goat, and 

 sheep are resistant to the virus. 



Atoxyl in the treatment of malignant catarrhal fever of cattle, E. Wyss- 

 MANN (Schiceiz. Arch. Tierheilk., o5 (1913), No. 7, pp. 361-371; abs. in Vet. 

 Rec, 26 (1914), No. 1332, p. 450). — The author, who considers the disease to be 

 a bacterial toxemia, recommends the injection of atoxyl following a copious 

 bleeding. He reports having obtained very encouraging results from this 

 treatment. 



Pasteurellosis in the reindeer and a contribution to the knowledge of the 

 biological characteristics of the pasteurella, H. Magnusson (Ztschr. Infec- 

 tiomkrank. u. Hyg. Haustiere, 15 (1914), No. 1, pp. 61-92, figs. 6).— This is a 

 detailed report of studies conducted at the Government Veterinary Bacterio- 

 logical Laboratory at Stockholm in which the author finds the disease to be 

 the same as that of deer, known in Germany as " Wildseuche." He finds the 

 pasteurella organism to be resistant to low temperature and to changing tem- 

 peratures near the freezing point, and to survive putrefaction for 6 months 

 without attenuation. 



Sanitary police measures and hog cholera, A. T. Kinsley (Amer. Vet. Rev., 

 44 (1913), No. 2, pp. 227-231; Proc. Amer. Vet. Med. Assoc., 50 (1913), pp. 684- 

 703). — A statement iu regard to the prevalence of hog cholera in the United 

 States at the present time. The total losses in the United States for 1912 ap- 

 proximated $100,000,000, and those in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri 

 over $30,000,000. So far as can be determined from available statistics these 

 relative losses have never been exceeded or equaled, and have occurred regard- 

 less of the fact that large quantities of antihog cholera serum have been used. 



The inadequacy of present legislation and sanitary measures in controlling 

 the pest is given as one of the causes of the prevalence of hog cholera. 



Abortion in mares caused by Bacillus paratyphosus, T. van Heelsbeegen 

 (Centbl. Balct. [etcl, 1 Abt., Orig., 72 (1913), No. 1-2, pp. 38-70, figs. 2).— A 



