Effect of Internal Influences. 



trembling and great weakness, which increases during the suc- 

 ceeding day until the animal becomes paralyzed and dies. Through 

 the ingestion of flesh, milk, or dairy products of an affected animal 

 the disease is transmitted to man or to another animal, and at- 

 tacks produced in this way most frequently prove fatal. In man 

 the disease develops with marked weariness, vomiting, retching, 

 and insatiable thirst. Respirations become labored, peristalsis 

 ceases, the temperature is subnormal, and the patient becomes 

 apathetic. Paralysis gradually follows and death takes place 

 quietly without rigor mortis. 



Many efforts have been made to elucidate the question re- 

 garding the nature and cause of this disease, but although many 

 theories have been discussed none of them has so far been general- 

 ly accepted. Some investigators hold that the disease is of micro- 

 organismal origin, some that it is due to auto-intoxication, while 

 others think it is caused by vegetable or mineral poisons All 

 seem to agree, however, that the disease is limited to low, swampy, 

 uncultivated land, and that the area of the places where it occurs 

 is often restricted to one or a few acres. Furthermore, when such 

 land or pastures have been cultivated and drained the disease dis- 

 appears completely. 



The discovery of a new focus of this disease in the Pecos Val- 

 ley of New Mexico in November, 1907, gave Jordan and Harris the 

 opportunity of studying this peculiar affection by modern bacter- 

 iological methods. As a result they have succeeded in isolating 

 in pure cultures from the blood and organs of animals dead of 

 this disease a spore-forming bacillus which they name "Bacillus 

 lactimorbi." With this bacillus they have reproduced in experi- 

 ment animals the symptoms and lesions peculiar to milk sickness 

 or trembles, and from these animals the same organism has been 

 recovered in purity. It therefore appears to have been demon- 

 strated that the bacillus in question is the probable cause of the 

 disease. As Jordan and Harris have already indicated, more com- 

 prehensive studies, based on a larger supply of material, are 

 desirable in order that the many obscure and mystifying features 

 connected with the etiology of this rapidly disappearing disease 

 may be elucidated. 



From the above facts it seems evident that milk sickness is an 

 infectious disease communicable to man, and the cattle owners 

 should therefore not be permitted to make use of the meat or milk 

 of affected animals for human consumption. Trans.] 



2. Malta Fever. On the coast of the Mediterranean, in South 

 Africa, India, China, Philippines, America, and especially on the 

 Island of Malta, there occurs in goats a disease which exists in 

 the animals without producing any or at most only very slight 

 symptoms. Cows may also possibly be affected. 'The infected 

 animals eliminate for months, frequently at intermittent periods, 

 the virus of the disease (Mlcrococcus melitensis, Bruce). Follow- 



