636 DISEASES OF CATTLE, SHEEP, GOATS, ETC. 



Grams. 



Arsenious acid 1.40 



Iron, reduced 12.00 



Quinine sulphate 6.00 



Mix and make into twenty powders, giving one to each adult 

 goat morning and evening at the conclusion of the administration of 

 calomel. After an interval of two days, this treatment is repeated. 

 In case the diarrhea persists, the sulphate of iron has been substituted 

 for the reduced iron, with beneficial effects. 



CONCLUSIONS. 



As a result of the present preliminary investigation, the follow- 

 ing conclusions have been reached: 



1. The disease here described as takosis has appeared in many 

 parts of this country, but particularly in the Northern States, where 

 it has caused great loss to many breeders of Angora goats. 



2. It is a progressive, debilitative, contagious disease, charac- 

 terized by great emaciation and weakness, with symptoms of diarrhea 

 and pneumonia, and causes a mortality of 100 per cent of those 

 affected and from 30 to 85 per cent of the whole flock. 



3. From the carcasses of numerous animals that have suc- 

 cumbed to this disease a new organism, Mierococcus caprinus, has 

 been recovered in purity and is presumably the etiological factor. 



4. This microcpccus possesses pathogenic properties for goats, 

 chickens, rabbits, guinea pigs, and white mice, but not for sheep, 

 dogs, or rats. 



5. Although the disease has been described before so far as 

 could be ascertained no bacteriological investigations have been pre- 

 viously made. 



6. Medicinal treatment was attempted with varying success, 

 while the immunizing experiments thus far conducted (although too 

 few to permit of any conclusive statement or accurate estimate as to 

 their protective value), have shown highly encouraging results. 

 When accompanied with measures of isolation and disinfection, the 

 treatment may prove of great assistance in the suppression and 

 eradication of the disease in an infected flock. 



MALTA FEVER. 



Microeoccus melitensis, the causal factor of Malta fever, is an 

 aerobic, round or slightly oval micro-organism about 0.4 micron in 

 diameter which usually occurs singly or in pairs, but when cultivated 

 in bouillon appears in short chains. In hanging-drop preparations 

 it shows an active Brownian movement, although according to Gor- 

 don this is a true motility due to flagella, which he claims to have 

 stained successfully. The organism is stained by the usual basic 

 aniline dyes, but does not take Gram's stain. Its growth is extremely 

 slow even in the incubator, and it requires a faintly acid medium. 

 In gelatin it grows feebly and without liquefaction. On agar 

 minute transparent or pearly white colonies appear after three or 

 four days, and two days subsequently the growths become amber- 

 colored ; later they become more opaque, of a buff color, with granu- 

 lar margins. In bouillon it gives rise to diffuse cloudiness, with a 



