LOUPING-ILL AND BRAXY COMMITTEE 671 



slaughter of all animals on infected farms, and just com- 

 pensation to the owners of flocks was awarded. In a little 

 more than twelve months the plague was by this means stayed, 

 and the disease is now unknown in the colony. The Dutch 

 and English farmers called the malady lung-ziekte, or 'lung- 

 sickness,' by which name contagious pleuro-pneumonia of 

 cattle is known by them. They aver that the symptoms and 

 post-mortem appearances were precisely like those of animals 

 of the bovine race that have died of pleuro-pneumonia. The 

 diseases, however, could not be the same. The * lung-sickness ' 

 of goats was not communicable to cattle. Even sheep that 

 cohabited with them enjoyed perfect immunity from the 

 disease." Agricultural Gazette. 



A Departmental Committee to investigate the diseases 

 Louping-Ill and Braxy was appointed in October 1901, by the 

 Right Hon. R. W. Hanbury, President of the Board of Agricul- 

 ture, with Professor D. J. Hamilton, of Aberdeen University, 

 as Chairman, and R. B. Greig as Secretary. The Report was 

 issued in 1906 as a Blue Book, in three parts Cd. 2932, 2933, 

 and 2934. The objects of investigation proved to be only two 

 of a " most interesting and important group " of at least seven 

 " closely allied " diseases, which appear to be all acquired 

 through the food, and caused by anaerobic bacteria (growing 

 only in media from which the air is excluded), " whose habitat 

 is in the alimentary canal, and all subject to a peculiar 

 seasonal action of the blood." The following are the names 

 of the diseases, the seasons when most prevalent, a general 

 indication of the localities of the infected districts, and brief 

 descriptions of the specific bacterium associated with each : 



A. " Braxy " (November to February). Widely distributed 

 along the West coast of Great Britain and Ireland: small 

 delicate rods, almost immobile, with a great tendency to spore. 



B. "Louping-Ill" or Trembling (April to June). West 

 and South of Scotland and North of England, and parts of the 

 North-west coast of Ireland : large, thick, clumsy-looking rods, 

 slightly mobile, with a tendency to develop oval or round 

 spores of a brown colour, but also able to increase by fission. 



C. "Black-quarter" (spring and autumn). Widely dis- 

 tributed : thick rods, more mobile than those of Louping-Ill. 



D. " Struck " (early spring). Romney marsh : very large, 

 coarse-looking rods. 



E. "Malignant CEdema" (November to January, and 



