718 INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 



It may not be out of place to give at this point a short list of 

 the principal infective diseases of definitely known fetiology, with 

 which hsemorrhagic septicfemia in cattle has been, and may readily 

 be, confused : 



Name of disease. Diagnostic 2)oints, 



Anthrax ....... Altered conclition of blood, enlarged spleen, 



presence of B. anthracis, etc. 

 Black-quarter Usually localised lesion, crepitant tumour, 



presence of B. anthracis symptomatici. 

 Septicpneunio-enteritis of calves (Galtier) Due to a spore-bearing bacillus — " Pneu- 



mohacillus sej^tictis " — which grows 



rapidly on potato. 

 Septiciemia of calves .... Due to typhoid-like bacilli. 



CONCLUSIONS. 



(1.) Eight outbreaks of haemorrhagic septicaemia in cattle due to 

 B. hovisepticus occurred in Minnesota from August to December, 1900. 



(2.) So far as can be determined, the only other outbreak of this 

 disease hitherto published as occurring in America was one near 

 Knoxville, Tenn., in 1898. The foci of the disease have also apparently 

 been present in Texas and the district of Colombia. No relation can 

 be traced between the disease elsewhere and the present outbreaks, 

 nor between any two of the present ones. 



(3.) Of 160 animals in the eight herds, sixty-four showed symptoms 

 of the disease, and all such died — a mortality of 40 per cent, of all 

 the animals in the herds, and of 100 per cent, of those showing 

 symptoms. 



(4.) The chief symptoms were loss of appetite, fever, stiffness, 

 swelling of the legs and throat, and a black, tarry, or bloody dis- 

 charge from the bowels. Bloody urine and bloody nasal discharge 

 were present in some cases. Death occurred usually in from six to 

 twenty-four hours after the first appearance of symptoms. 



(5.) The chief lesions discovered at autopsy were ecchymoses, and 

 small and large haemorrhagic areas in the subcutaneous connective 

 tissues, muscles, lymph glands, and throughout the internal organs. 

 The cervical lymph glands, heart muscle, and alimentary canal were 

 most affected. The spleen was not enlarged nor darkened (except 

 after onset of decomposition). 



(6.) From the twenty-two animals on which autopsies were made 

 the same bacillus was obtained from all the tissues examined. Where 

 the examination was made immediately after death — nine cases — it was 

 unmixed with any other organism. 



