414 INFECTIVE DISEASES. 



among slaughterers and butchers, who would be particularly liable 

 to it, if flesh were a source of infection. The chances of infection 

 by ingestion are minimised by the flesh being almost always cooked. 

 Actinomycosis occurs also in pigs, and pork is very often eaten in an 

 uncooked state ; but Israel has pointed out that this may probably 

 be excluded, as many of the cases occurred among strict Jews. 



The evidence points to the disease originating in man and lower 

 animals from the same source, and there is a very strong suspicion 

 attached to cereals. This view is supported by important obser- 

 vations, with reference to the part played by cereals in inducing 

 the disease in cattle, and it gains additional support from a case 

 described by Soltmann, where the disease resulted from an awn of 

 wall barley. A boy, aged eleven, accidentally swallowed an awn 

 of Hordeum murinum. He became very ill, and suffered great pain 

 behind the sternum, extending to the back. An abscess formed, 

 covering an area extending over six intercostal spaces, and when 

 opened, the awn of this grass was found in the evacuated pus. 

 The pain, however, continued, and fresh deposits occurred, and when 

 the boy was taken to the hospital, the ray-fungus was detected. 

 Possibly the spores of the fungus can be conveyed both by air and 

 water. 



This disease in cattle has long been known in this country, but 

 its various manifestations were either mistaken for other diseases, 

 or simply received popular names. Indeed, the various forms are 

 still familiar to many as wens, clyers or crewels, scrofulous, tuber- 

 cular or strumous abscesses, polypus, lymphoma, cancer of the 

 tongue, scirrhous tongue, indurated tongue, ulcerated tongue, cancer 

 of bone, bone tubercle, osteo-sarcoma, fibroplastic degeneration of 

 bone, spina ventosa, and carcinoma. 



Bovine antinomycosis is especially prevalent in river valleys, 

 marshes, and on land reclaimed from the sea. The disease occurs 

 at all times of the year, but general experience leads to the belief 

 that it occurs more commonly in the winter. 



It is more frequently met with in young animals, and usually 

 occurs between one and three years, but it may be found at almost 

 any age, and probably affects equally both sexes. 



There is little if any evidence to show that the disease is heredi- 

 tary. In numerous cases, the family history has been most carefully 

 inquired into by the author ; and in the case of some imported 

 pedigree animals, the disease was quite unknown on the farm where 

 they had been bred. 



The tongue is so commonly the seat of the disease, that suspicion 



