1917] VETERINARY MEDICINE. 479 



vvitli placental suspension, the action of serum of dogs injected with split 

 products of pepsin-trypsin digestion of human placenta, the action of serum 

 of pregnant dogs injected with placental suspension, and the effect of feeding 

 on the aniino-acid content and the ferment strength of the blood serum, using 

 placenta as substrate. 



It is concluded that normal blood serum contains a weak proteolytic ferment 

 which carries digestion to the amino-acid stage. The concentration of this 

 ferment is not constant. " There is an increased proteolytic ferment action 

 of serum during pregnancy as shown by the dialysis method of Abderhalden. 

 This can not be detected by the Van Slyke method [E. S. R., 34, p. 577]. The 

 injection of placental suspension does not give rise to an increased production 

 or mobilization of ferments when tested by the dialysis method or the Van 

 Slyke method. The injection of the split products of pepsin-trypsin digestion 

 of human placenta gives rise to an increase in the ferments. This increase 

 can be shown by the dialysis method but not by means of the Van Slyke 

 method. The theory underlying the Abderhalden reaction as advanced by 

 Abderhalden does not explain the increase in ferments found during preg- 

 nancy. The basis of the theory would seem to be the entrance of split products 

 of placental hydrolysis rather than of chorionic villi and cells. The Van Slyke 

 method is not applicable to determinations of the above character in which a 

 nonsoluble, moist, complex, protein substance is incubated with serum in a test 

 tube but without dialysis." 



Desiccated anthrax antigen for immunization purposes, N. S. Feeey (Jour. 

 Amer. Vet. Med. Assoc, 51 {1917}, No. 2, pp. 200-203).— The preparation of a 

 desiccated spore vaccine in a manner similar to the preparation of spore vaccine 

 in suspension (E. S. R., 34, p. 579) is noted. The growth Avas scraped from the 

 agar and incorporated with a sterile diluent and dried at room temperature. 



No deterioration in the virulence of a preparation one year old and kept at 

 room temperature was observed. It is indicated that the most satisfactory 

 method of using the vaccine would be in the form of properly standardized 

 pellets. 



Special report of the State veterinarian on foot-and-mouth disease in Vir- 

 ginia, its cause, how spread among cattle, other ruminants, and swine, and 

 its control and eradication, J. G. Febneyhough (Richmond, Va.: State, 1916, 

 pp. 38, pis. Jf)- — This reports upon control and eradication work by the Vir- 

 ginia State Live Stock Sanitary Board during the outbreak of foot-and-mouth 

 disease which occurred in the fall of 1914. 



Johne's disease. — The reactions of animals to " Johnin," J. McFadyean, 

 A. L. Sheathee, and J. T. Edwaeds {Jour. Compar. Path, and Ther., 29 {1916), 

 Nos. 2, pp. 134-171; 3, pp. 201-243, figs. 25).— The substance " Johuin," used 

 in the experiments reported, is analogous to tuberculin. The material was 

 prepared from a strain of Johne's bacillus isolated from the intestine of a typi- 

 cal case of the disease, and the absence of tubercle bacilli from the strain 

 was proved by animal experimentation. The strain, which had been cultivated 

 for a number of years, would not grow on liquid or solid media unle.ss extracts 

 of some other acid-fast bacilli were present. 



The first Johnin used was prepared from a surface growth on broth to 

 which 4 per cent of an extract of human tubercle bacilli in 20 per cent 

 glycerin had been added. The culture in the flask was heated for one hour 

 and the organisms removed by passing the liquid through a Berkefeld filter. 

 The clear filtrate thus obtained was used in some of the tests. 



A preparation was also made by separating the bacilli from the liquid cul- 

 ture media by sedimentation, suspending in sterile distilled water, and then 



