SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 125 



this line, especially in a biological sense; that if possible we may 

 be helped in the matter of both treatment and prevention, I am 

 especially moved to suggest this matter in view of important work 

 already being accomplished elsewhere along similar lines in 

 bovine tuberculosis, and to this end with special pleasure I 

 pledge in advance my most hearty co-operation where possible, 

 from the clinical side of the situation. 



ACTINOMYCOSIS. 



Third in order of importance and of much clinical interest is 

 actinomycosis (so-called "lumpy jaw" of the domestic ruminant), 

 which prevailed in the prong-horned antelope herd. 



Our post-mortem reports show four deaths among the antelope 

 and one among deer from this strange disease, due to the inva- 

 sion of the animal tissues by the ray fungus of Bostrom. 



The infection of the herd, which was perhaps as fine and 

 thrifty as any in captivity, was with good reason thought to have 

 occurred through the importation of one new specimen from 

 western Montana, with the result that its spread was very rapid, 

 although the usual methods of isolation and costly and repeated 

 disinfections of the entire buildings and paddocks were made. 



While the pathologist's report of findings upon the first case 

 left no possible doubt as to the nature of the disorder, the entire 

 clinical aspect of this disease as manifest in these animals was 

 of the utmost interest as substantiating what I have already been 

 pleased to allude to as dissimilarity of symptoms and course of 

 known disease in domestic and wild animals in captivity re- 

 spectively. 



Actinomycosis, while it has been known to become more or less 

 endemic among the cattle of larger or smaller areas, and even 

 epidemic in rare cases both in Europe and America, is essentially 

 a sporadic disease, which may be best described as a specific pro- 

 hferating periostitis and rarifying ostitis, exceedingly slow in 

 development, and with few exceptions entirely local in its mani- 

 festations, usually allowing of the animal being fitted for 

 slaughter. 



In domestic hoof stock the predilection point of infection is 

 slight abrasions of the mucous membrane of the tongue or jaws 

 contiguous to the molar teeth. 



As studied in this outbreak among the antelope its course was 

 very intense, the majoritv of the cases ending fatally within ten 

 days from the first visible symptoms of illness, and unlike the 



