19171 VETERINARY MEDICINE. 881 



Draft of proposed law for immunization of cattle and carabao in the 

 Philippine Islands and correspondence relative to such immunization, H. S. 

 Mabtin (Manila, P. I.: Dept. Pub. Instr., 1915, pp. 29). — This is a detailed draft 

 of the proposed law in both English and Spanish. 



A further report of the diagnosis of open cases of tuberculosis, D. H. 

 Udall and R. R. Biech {Cornell Vet., 7 (1917), No. 1, pp. 13-29).— The results 

 of a study carried out to demonstrate the possibility of recognizing open cases, 

 or " spreaders," of the disease, covering a period of about six years, are reported 

 in detail and discussed. 



Reliance upon a physical examination alone for the suppression of the disease 

 is considered to be a failure from the results obtained. It is, however, of value 

 in the partial reduction of the number of " spreaders " in a badly infected herd. 

 It is also considered to be of service in detecting the occasional nonreacting 

 " spreader." 



A uniform standardized system of inspection is recommended. 



Tuberculosis of fowls (Wisconsin Sta. Bui. 215 (1917), pp. 40, 41). — Experi- 

 ments on the communicability of avian tuberculosis to swine by inoculation of 

 pure cultures of the avian organism, by B. A. Beach, E. G. Hastings, and J, G. 

 Halpin, are noted. Fatal results were obtained in every case, although it is 

 considered that the post-mortem examination would have hardly indicated that 

 the changes were due to the tubercle bacillus. " While these cases of fatal 

 tuberculosis were produced in hogs by artificial inoculation, it is doubtful 

 whether the avian tubercle is able to produce a fatal termination of the dis- 

 ease when the infection is acquired under natural conditions, as by feeding." 



The " wattle " test with avian tuberculin was found to be highly satisfactory. 



Special report on diseases of cattle (U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Anim. Indus., 

 1916, rev. ed., pp. 568, pis. 50, figs. 29). — A revised edition of the work pre- 

 viously noted (E. S. R., 21, p. 283). 



Some facts about abortion disease, E. C. Scheoeder and W. E. Cotton 

 (Jour. Amer. Vet. Med. Assoc, 50 (1916), No. 3, pp. 321-330). — A paper, pre- 

 sented at the meeting of the Massachusetts Veterinary Medical Association, at 

 Springfield, Mass., in October, 1916, in which the authors discuss some of the 

 results of their recent work. 



Since the Bacillus abortus is an obligatory parasite, its chronic persistence 

 in the bodies of infected cows is probably the most important among the causes 

 responsible for the propagation, perpetuation, and wide prevalence of the 

 disease. In numerous tests made with milk from many different cows the 

 abortion bacillus was never found in the milk of a cow unless both her milk 

 and her blood serum possessed agglutinating properties for suspensions of abor- 

 tion bacilli. This, however, does not necessarily mean that the milk of all cows 

 which react with the agglutination test for abortion disease is infected, since 

 tests of milk from reacting cows have been made without detecting abortion 

 bacilli. 



Investigations thus far indicate that the blood serum of reacting cows with 

 uninfected udders gradually loses its power to agglutinate suspensions of abor- 

 tion bacilli. If this proves to be the case, it is held that with other facts it 

 will justify the conclusion that the persistence of agglutinating and complement- 

 fixing substances in the blood of cows, relative to abortion disease, is intimately 

 associated with the abortion bacilli that enter that body through the lymphatics 

 from infected udders. That abortion bacilli do not maintain themselves in 

 the bodies of cows elsewhere than their udders and gravid uteruses is a conten- 

 tion for which they have obtained fairly convincing proof. The authors con- 

 sider the evidence at hand sufficient to prove that abortion bacilli do not main- 



