Pseiiilo-Coast Pe ver. 733 



the Piroplasma mutans occurs also in localities free from coast fever, on the 

 other hand he proved that cattle immuue against Texas fever may be infected with 

 it; therefore it could not be a special form of the piroplasma bigeminum. 



Parasites resembling the Piroplasma mutans were also found by Miyajima & 

 Shibajama in Japan, by Martini in China, by Does in Netherlands-India, by Sehein 

 in Indo-China; moreover, the parasites seen by Dreyer in Egyptian fever, and by 

 Springefeldt in Camerun in cattle, appeared to be identical with them. Lichten- 

 held observed their api)earanee in calves 32-91 days after birth, although the 

 animals showed no s.^miptoms of disease. He, as well as Broden & Eodhain, suc- 

 ceeded in propagating them by the injection of blood containing piroplasma. 



Literature. Theiler, Eep. of the Gov.-Bact., 1905/06-1907/08; Comp. Path., 



1909. XX. 115. — Sehein, A. P., 1908. XXII. 730. — Lichtenheld, Z. f. Hyg., 



1910. LXA'. 378. 



Gall Sickness. (Galziekte). Under this name the farmers of South 

 Africa designate in general those diseases in the course of which a dis- 

 coloration and thickening of the bile, as well as an icteric condition of 

 the tissues develops. With the more accurate study of the diseases 

 it was found that the most varied diseases are grouped under that name, 

 (rinderpest, coast fever, Texas fever without red urine, heart water, and 

 poisoning by plants). Nevertheless there are enzootic infections of cattle 

 which cannot be classed with any of the known types of disease, and 

 which are also designated by professional men as gall sickness, in the 

 restricted sense. 



The etiology of these affections has not yet been established satis- 

 factorily. While Hutcheon, who in 1897 described them first as jaun- 

 dice or biliary fever, attributed them to a primary affection of the liver 

 from an unknown cause, Spreull identified them as Pasteurellosis with 

 the Lamziekte (see p. 109), Eddington with heart water (see p. 257). 

 Theiler was formerly inclined to connect it with Trypanosoma theileri, 

 later with Piroplasma mutans ; according to his recent investigations 

 however he determined that they are produced by the anaplasma mar- 

 ginal (Fig. 129 on p. 763), in which the blood corpuscles are attacked 

 and destroyed, whereby an oligocythemia is produced, which is associated 

 with high fever, and which later leads to a degeneration of the large 

 parenchymatous organs. 



According to Theiler 's conception the disease would be identical with the 

 mild form of Texas fever described by Smith & Kilbourne, which is observed espe- 

 cially in North America in the fall, as a second attack in cattle that recovered 

 from the acute affection in the summer. According to Knuth 's observations it 

 occurs in a similar manner also in South America, and the cachectic form of piro- 

 plasmosis described by Dsehunkowsky & Luhs in Trans-Caucasia is supposed also 

 to belong to it. 



The disease named Anaplasmosis by Theiler attacks cattle exclu- 

 sively, and especially when they are brought from highlands into low- 

 lands, or from less infected localities into more infected territories. 

 African cattle are less susceptible, as they have mostly passed through 

 the disease as calves, whereas fresh, imported animals usually become 

 affected severely. 



The i^arasites may be transmitted to healthy cattle with the blood 

 of affected and recovered animals, whereupon in the tirst case they 

 appear in the blood after 27-32 days, in the second after 16 days, and 

 may be demonstrated during the febrile period, exceptionally also for 

 some time after. Animals which have recovered from the disease show a 

 great resistance against new infections, but they serve as virus reservoirs 

 for the Boophilus decoloratus tick, which according to Theiler is sup- 

 posed to transmit the natural infection in a way similar to Texas fever. 



