88 PLANT DISEASE 



say the disease produces this abnormal colour, 

 but if they will notice the blood of any number 

 of animals slaughtered for the butcher, they 

 will find a very considerable range of colour 

 in the blood, while not one of these animals 

 will show any sign of disease either by ocular 

 observation or by the thermometer. 



Yet if their view were correct, the colour of 

 the blood would be an indication that they 

 were suffering from some disease and therefore 

 unfit for food. 



As a matter of fact, they are diseased, in- 

 asmuch as their blood and consequently their 

 tissues are abnormal, and no doubt in such a 

 state that if pathogenic bacteria were injected 

 into them, they would develop some one 

 recognized disease according to the bacteria 

 or fungus injected. 



In the case of heartwater I have noticed that 

 . animals that have been on infected country for 

 months, remaining free from any disease all 

 the time, yielded when slaughtered a blood of 

 a bright red, coagulating readily into one solid 

 clot, which clot, when broken, showed the same 

 constant colour right through. This is an im- 

 portant point, because you will find the blood 



