DISEASES OF THE COW 113 



to a lesser degree. Six of the cows of the other dairyman (Y.) 

 were affected with an ulcerated condition of the teats. From 

 swabs rubbed into the ulcers upon the teats of the two 

 worst of Z.'s cows diphtheria bacilli were isolated. They 



FiQ. 3.— Ulcerated Teats. 



were fully virulent for guinea-pigs. Cultures from a sample 

 of milk showed only non- pathogenic diphtheria -like bacilli. 

 Ashby adds : " Whether the eruptive disease of the teat was a 

 specific diphtheritic infection of the cow, or whether there was 

 a specific contagious eruptive condition apart from diphtheritic 

 infection, cannot now be told, but certain it is that the diph- 

 theria bacillus was present in the pathological lesions of the 

 cow." 



Klein's experimental results in favour of the existence of 

 bovine diphtheria have not been confirmed by either Abbott 

 or Eitter. 



Ever since the classical outbreak of scarlet fever at Hendon 

 in 1885 the existence of bovine scarlet fever has been 

 debated. The possibility of such a condition has again become 

 of practical interest since the outbreak of scarlet fever in 1909 

 in certain parts of London and Surrey was ascribed by Hamer 

 and Jones to a possibly bovine source. 



The question of bovine scarlet fever is so technical and 

 involved that if it is to be discussed it can only be profitably 

 done, in some detail. To avoid overburdening the text with 

 what is at most quite a minor portion of the milk problem, it 

 is treated in a separate addendum to this chapter. 



