32 DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS. 



stringent measure* by the city health authorities in order to suppress 

 the outbreak. Inoculation experiments at this laboratory proved con- 

 clusively that the person mentioned had died of rabies, and also that 

 one of the dogs, the head of which was forwarded from Rochester, was 

 suffering with this disease at the time of its death. 



In the stock yards of St. Joseph, Mo., the disease appeared among 

 a shipment of cows which were known to have been bitten some time 

 previously by a rabid dog, and which were held at the stock yards for 

 observation. Four of these animals died with symptoms of furious 

 rabies, and the diagnosis was confirmed by in.oculation experiments 

 made in this laboratory. Further investigations proved that a num- 

 ber of other domesticated animals had died, with characteristic sj'mp- 

 toms of rabies, in the neighborhood from which the cows were shipped. 



From the District of Columbia there were received GO dogs which 

 had been killed as being suspected of rabies. Of these, 15 were proved 

 to have been affected with the disease at the time of their death. It 

 is known that 5 of these dogs had bitti^n one or more people. These 

 people were notified of the results of the inoculation experiments, in 

 order that they might take the necessary precautions to prevent the 

 development of the disease. Three of these dogs were also known to 

 have bitten cattle, horses, or other dogs. 



The health authorities of the District of Columbia also forwarded 

 the dead bodies of 2 cats, 1 of which proved to have been affected 

 with rabies. 



TUBERCULOSIS. 



Experiments for the eradication of tuberculosis from the dairy herd 

 at the insane asjdum at St. Elizabeth, District of Columbia, have been 

 continued, and all the reacting animals have, by this time, been 

 destroyed and replaced with tuberculin-tested coa^s. The new herd, 

 now consisting of 115 milch cows, will shortly be submitted to a final 

 test in order to ascertain whether any of the i)urchased animals have 

 developed tuberculosis since they were admitted to the barns of the 

 asylum. 



Inoculations on guinea pigs with milk from the reacting cows, in 

 order to test its infectiveness, have developed results of such a nature 

 that it has been considered advisable to repeat them on a smaller 

 scale before the results are published. It may, however, be men- 

 tioned that the results are strongly indicative of the frequent occur- 

 rence of tubercle bacilli in the milk of cows which have reacted to 

 the tuberculin test, but which do not show clinical symptoms of the 

 disease. 



EXAMINATION AND DIAGNOSES OF PATHOLOGICAL SPECIMENS. 



In tiie course of meat inspection, as carried out by the Bureau of 

 Animal Industry, it frequently occurs that inspectors encounter patho- 

 logical conditions whicli even the most trained eye fails to recognize. 

 In a majority of cases the inspectors have neither facilities nor time 

 for histological or bacteriological investigations, and it has, therefore, 

 become customary to forward rare or interesting pathological speci- 

 mens to this divisi(m for diagnosis or for confii'ination of diagnoses 

 made by the collectors. During the past fiscal year no less than 344 

 such pathological specimens were received at this division and the 

 great majority of those wei-e collected and forwarded by members of 

 the inspection division. In all cases where possible the specimens 



