1919] VETERINARY MEDICINE. 885 



culture to be tested. If those receiving the serum live and the checks die, the 

 identity of the blackleg strain is considered established. 



Preliminary report on the value of the blood tests in the control of con- 

 tagious abortion, C. P. Fitch, W. L. Boyd, and W. A. Billings (Jour. Amer. 

 Vet. Med. Assoc, 54 (1919), No. 7, pp. 681-102). — In this paper, presented at the 

 fifty-fifth annual meeting of the American Veterinary Medical Association, held 

 at Philadelphia in 1918, the authors discuss the relative value of the com- 

 plement fixation and agglutination tests for the control of contagious abortion, 

 and present data of the results of the agglutination test as applied to nine 

 representative herds from the Northwest, from which the following conclusions 

 are drawn : 



" The complement-fixation test seems to have no advantage over the aggluti- 

 nation test in the diagnosis of contagious abortion. The technique of the 

 agglutination test is simpler than that of complement fixation, and the results 

 of the agglutination test are not influenced by as many factors (conglutinin, 

 etc.). The results of the agglutination test show the relative amount of herd 

 infection. The test can not be relied on to pick out individual aborters. The 

 blood of calves may have the same agglutination titer as that of their dams. 

 Many, however, react differently. The agglutination test of animals from 8 to 

 10 months of age usually shows that agglutinating antibodies are not present 

 in their blood. Herd bulls often react positively to the agglutination test. At 

 present the results of the agglutination test can not be utilized as a basis for 

 control measures for abortion disease." 



An extensive list of references is appended. 



The present status of specific treatment for contagious abortion, H. P. 

 Hoskins (Jour. Amer. Vet. Med. Assoc., 54 (1919), No. 7, pp. 727-737 ) .—The 

 author reviews and comments on recent publications on specific treatment for 

 contagious abortion. Several references to the literature on the subject are 

 appended. 



The ophthalmic and intradermic tests for glanders ( U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. 

 Anim. Indus., 1919, pp. 18, figs. 5). — A description is given of the methods of 

 application of the ophthalmic and intradermic mallein tests for glanders, and 

 of the principles to be observed in judging the results of these two tests. Both 

 methods are recognized by the Bureau of Animal Industry for official testing 

 for glanders in horses and mules offered for interstate shipment. 



The ophthalmic test is considered to have the advantage of being simple in 

 application, but the disadvantage that the most prominent evidence of reaction, 

 a discharge from the eye, may be obliterated accidentally by the animal or 

 purposely by an unscrupulous attendant. The intradermic test has the advan- 

 tage of producing a reaction that can not be obliterated but the technique of 

 its application is more difficult. 



[Statistics on the mallein and blood test for glanders], E. FfiOHNKB 

 (Monatsh. Prakt. Tierheilk., 29 (1917), No. 1-2, pp. 86-96).— Statistics are re- 

 ported on the examination for glanders of 4,181 horses from Poland and 

 Roumania. Of the 80 animals proved on autopsy to have glanders, 55 had re- 

 acted positively with both the mallein and blood tests. The eye test failed 

 14 times and the blood test 13 times. 



Infection, sensitization, and immunity in epizootic lymphangitis. Roquet 

 and L. Negee (Compt. Rend. Acad. Sci. [Paris], 168 (1919), No. 8, pp. 421- 

 423).— Successful attempts at reproducing epizootic lymphangitis in horses by 

 subcutaneous inoculation of cultures of cryptococci are reported. The disease 

 under such conditions is not at first generalized but appears as a suppurating 

 lesion at the point of inoculation. Extension and generalization of the lesions 



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