XVI PRESIDENTIAL ADDKESS. 



from Tetanus rarely ever seeks professional advice until he thinks 

 there is no possihle chance whatever of the animal recovering. 



In a recent communication to the Paris Academy of Medicine 

 M. Nocard says that from experimental as well as from the 

 clinical point of view the antitoxic serum employed as a preventive 

 of Tetanus in the horse has had wonderful success, but when 

 applied to the treatment of declared Tetanus was (for reasons 

 previously given) almost always a failure. jHowever, in the 

 presence of reliable information collected by practitioners who 

 have treated Tetanus with antitoxine, M. Nocard considers this 

 mode of treatment still the best ; for, if it does not increase the 

 number of cures, it gives on the contrary remarkable results from 

 a preventive point of view. In 2707 animals which had recently 

 received two injections each of the antitoxic serum, not a single 

 case of Tetanus was observed in districts where the malady had 

 made numy victims some days or weeks previously. On the other 

 hand, during the time this experiment lasted M. Nocard and his 

 colleagues observed 259 cases of Tetanus in animals not treated 

 pre\entively. jM. Nocard accordingly recommends the serum 

 treatment of Tetanus in regions where this malady is observed, 

 and particularly after surgical operations which niost predispose 

 to it. He terminates his last communication by repeating, with 

 M. AA'arnesson of Versailles, that, " employed preventively, the 

 efficacy of anti-tetanic serum is absolute." It is worthy of note 

 that this last statement of so distinguished a scientist as M. Nocard 

 could never have been made but for the microscopical discoveries 

 of previous observers. 



I may say that at the present time this method of preventive 

 treatment for Tetanus is largely used by veterinary surgeons in 

 England, on the continent of Europe, and in America, and I see 

 no reason why its use should not be extended to these colonies. 



ACTINOMYCOSIS. 

 Actinomycosis is a disease the accurate diagnosis of which 

 calls for the aid of the microscope. Until the year 1876 the true 

 nature of this disease had, with few exceptions, been overlooked. 

 Cases in cattle were known under a variety of names, such as 

 wens, scirrhous, scrofulous and tuberculous tumours, osteo- 

 sarcoma, wooden tongue, polyphus or lymphoma and clyers of 



