LAMZIEKTE IN CATTLE 183 



was however, difficult to iiiulerstaiid liow pupae of ordi- 

 nary flies or blowflies could be the cause of Lauiziekte as 

 cattle do not eat these insects; but it was observed that 

 animals were frequently to be seen eating bones of car- 

 casses lying' in the veld. The fact that cattle eat bones is 

 so well known in South Africa that farmers consider 

 this quite a normal state of aff'airs. Animals were then 

 fed with ground up bones gathered from a lamziekte veld : 

 this resulted in typical cases of Lamziekte. This was the 

 first important step on the way to a solution of the 

 problem. 



Naturally tlie bone in itself is not poisonous, and the 

 investigators soon realized that its harmful properties 

 were due to the presence of some germ. A large number 

 of cattle diseases have been traced to the action of 

 bacteria. Anthrax is the type of blood poisoning where 

 the germs directly attack the blood, the spores may keep 

 alive in the soil for long periods. Another example is 

 Black Quarter Evil, a disease in which the organisms re- 

 main localised in one portion of the body, for example 

 in the hind quarter, but produce a toxin which circulates 

 in the blood and causes the death of the animal. In the 

 case of tetanus the germs remain in the wound, and only 

 the toxin gets into the body and produces the disease; no 

 causal bacteria are found in the blood or tissues of ani- 

 mals affected with lamziekte and subsequent experiments 

 showed that this disease is due to a toxin produced by 

 the bacteria outside the animal body. 



Bones and carcasses which had proved to be poisonous 

 and had caused Lamziekte were submitted to a bacterio- 

 logical examination and it was found that at least three 

 kinds of bacteria were growing in them; one is a fairly 

 thick rod and is the usual germ of decomposition ; 

 the second one has the shape of a tennis racket 

 and the third the form of a drumstick. These 

 germs were cultivated in the laboratory using 

 minced liver as a medium; in this medium they produce 



