HISTORY 



551 



tissues with the one described by Burrill as the cause of a 

 disease in cornstalks. In 1893, Dr. Theobald Smith identified 

 the bacillus described by Professor Burrill as Dacillus cIoaca\ 



Billings also found pneumonia to be one of the lesions 

 characteristic of this affection and in a subsequent bulletin he 

 places great importance upon this lesion, although he adds 

 very few additional observations to sustain the claim. 



In 1890, a few animals from a shipload of American cattle 

 landed at La Villette, France, died of pneumonia. They were 

 examined very carefully by Nocard and other French veterin- 

 arians. From the diseased lung Nocard obtained a micro- 

 organism which corresponded very closely to the description of 

 the bacillus of the cornstalk disease of cattle described by 

 Billings in America. The publication of this fact gave rise 

 to a temporary supposition that this American cornstalk dis- 

 ease might be a menace to the cattle of Europe and conse- 

 quently initial steps were taken to require American cattle to 

 be quarantined against it. The fact was subsequently deter- 

 mined that the bacillus isolated by Nocard belonged to the 

 espticaemia hemorrhagica group of bacteria which is usually 

 found to be associated with a form of bovine pneumonia occa- 

 sionally met with in America, but not known to be contagious, 

 and the matter was dropped. 



A single experiment was made at Champaign, 111. , in 1899, 

 in which the etiological importance of corn smut was tested 

 with negative results. A bacteriological examination of the 

 organs from an animal that died in a cornstalk field, supposedly 

 of this disease, was made with negative results by Professor 

 Burrill in 1889. 



In 1892, Moore investigated this disease and his report 

 furnishes the information here given concerning the symptoms 

 and morbid anatomy of this affection. 



§ 272. Geographical distribution. Geographically, 

 this affection is restricted very largely to those sections of the 

 United States where the farmers harvest their corn by picking 

 the ears from the standing stalks, after which cattle are turned 

 into the cornstalk fields. At present, therefore, it is limited 

 in its distribution to the middle and northern portions of the 



