CORNSTALK DISEASE IN CATTLE 501 
was, that an animal or a number of animals, usually cattle, have died 
suddenly after feeding in a cornstalk field from four to ten days. 
From a pathological point of view, therefore, the term is meaningless, 
but it has served admirably as a general term to designate certain 
fatalities occurring under a given condition. 
History. From a historical point of view, no positive statements 
can be made concerning it prior to 1868, when the first recorded inves- 
tigations into its nature and cause were made. At that time Gamgee 
was employed by the United States Department of Agriculture to 
investigate this disease. The “‘smut theory” of its etiology appears 
to have been the prevailing one at that time and consequently Gam- 
gee’s report deals almost exclusively with the effect of improperly 
prepared food, smuts and the like. He concluded that “smut is not 
a very active poison in combination with wholesome food.” 
In 1889, Billings described the cornstalk disease as an “acute 
extraorganismal septicemia, due to micro-organisms belonging to the 
class of ovoid-belted germs, to which variety of disease also belongs the 
swine plague, southern cattle plague, Wildeseuche, hog cholera, and 
yellow fever in man.”’ From the organs of cattle dead from the 
disease he reported to have invariably isolated a bacillus, which he 
affirms to be its cause. He identified the bacillus, which he found in 
the animal tissues, with the one described by Burrill as the cause of a 
disease in cornstalks. In 1893, Smith identified the bacillus described 
by Burrill as Bacillus cloace. 
Billings also found pneumonia to be one of the lesions characteristic 
of this affection and in a subsequent bulletin he places great import- 
ance upon this lesion, although he adds very few additional observa- 
tions 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 veterinarians. 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 
disease might be a menace to the cattle of Europe and consequently 
initial steps were taken to require American cattle to be quarantined 
against it. The fact was subsequently determined that the bacillus 
isolated by Nocard belonged to the septicemia hemorrhagica group of 
