558 • Veterinary Medicine. 



the system : ' ' Hoggs are very dull and listless for some time after 

 being smeared with tar, more especially if heavily smeared ; . . 

 . . when the skin is taken off, every shed or opening in the 

 wool where the tar has been laid on, is as distinctly visible upon 

 the flesh as the stripes upon a piece of printed calico. ' ' 



It has been further alleged that the deaths are 'especially com- 

 mon during the full of the moon, the usual explanation being 

 that the sheep are tempted to feed in the night and overload the 

 stomach. It may be added that at such times the grass is taken 

 in a cold — (often frosted) condition so as to chill the stomach 

 and cause a congestive reaction, and that short of this, under the 

 night dews the microbian ferments are moist and ready to start 

 into full activity, while the herbage if it has been partly frosted 

 is particularly susceptible to bacteridian attack. 



Bacteriology of Braxy. The essential cause of braxy was re- 

 vealed by Ivar Nielson in 1888, who demonstrated on the local 

 lesions of the alimentary canal and the capillaries of various in- 

 ternal organs a bacillus which he named bacillus gastromycosis 

 ovis. This is 2 to 6ju. long by i/u. broad, occurring in pairs or fila- 

 ments. The organism has an eliptical form and stains deeply at 

 the extremities, while the central, bulging portion fails to take 

 the color, is highly refrangent, and represents the spore. The 

 non-spore-bearing bacilli are long, uniform rods with rounded 

 ends. The germ is anaerobic, grows readily in serum glycerine 

 agar, and is gas- producing and foul smelling. I^iquefies gelatine. 

 It is found abundantly in the congested parts of the abomasum 

 and to a less extent in the bowels, in the mucosa, and in the sub- 

 mucous and subserous tissues. It is also found in the blood 

 and in the small areas of degeneration in the liver and kidneys. 

 Jensen obtained pure cultures through the survival of the spores 

 when impure cultures were boiled for a few minutes. 



Animals susceptible. Inoculation of the cultures subcutem 

 produces an affection resembling malignant oedema, or braxy, in 

 sheep, Guinea pigs, mice, pigeons and hens, and less certainly in 

 rabbits. Inoculation of a calf had no deleterious effect, while a 

 second succumbed in forty-eight hours. In its pathogenesis this 

 microbe appears to be more closely alHed to that of malignant 

 oedema than that of black quarter, as the latter attacks cattle 

 very readily and has little effect on rabbits, pigeons and chickens. 



