MARCH 53 



identified the agent with the microbe of human diph- 

 theria. A question was addressed lately in the House 

 of Commons to the President of the Local Govern- 

 ment Board by Major Anstruther-Gray, and the answer 

 should convey reassurance to apprehensive souls. It 

 was to the effect that, although investigation had been 

 focused by the Local Government Board upon the 

 nature of the malady, no evidence had been obtained 

 showing that the micro-organism which affected the 

 pigeons was identical with that causing human diph- 

 theria. The results of research into its nature is, 

 indeed, only negative; but what has prevented that 

 research reaching positive conclusion is the entire ces- 

 sation of the disease among pigeons. 



As matter of fact there is nothing new in this epi- 

 zootic. I can recollect more than one outbreak many 

 years ago. We used to attribute it to a surfeit of 

 beech-mast; but, in the north at least, we had few 

 beech-mast in 1907. During that year, however, the 

 disease did not appear in Scotland, so far as I am aware. 



