310 OTHER GERM DISEASES 
ventive culture” is widely and successfully adopted in the United 
States. 
Tetanus or Lockjaw (B. tetanus) —This is a disease of rather 
rare occurrence among domestic animals, but it may sometimes 
occur if an animal receive a wound by means of some object that 
has been lying for a long time insthe soil. The cause of tetanus 
is a bacillus (B. tetanus), which lives normally in the earth and 
may get into a wound and produce the well-known and commonly 
fatal disease. 
Abortion (B. abortus)—This troublesome disease sometimes 
appears in a herd and produces great loss, and endless trouble to 
the dairyman. Cows attacked by the disease do not carry their 
calves the full time, but drop them early and become useless for 
the time as milk-cows. If the animal is once affected she is 
likely to have the same trouble the next time she is in calf, and 
perhaps her usefulness is ended This trouble has for some time 
been recognized as contagious and has in recent years been 
demonstrated to be produced by a definite species of bacterium. 
The bacterium may infect cow after cow, and even the bull may 
distribute it through a herd of cattle. The best remedy has 
been found to be thorough disinfection. The calf must be de- 
stroyed, the stable disinfected, genital parts of the cow thor- 
oughly washed with disinfecting solutions and the animal 
kept from the rest of the herd. A thorough disinfection of 
this sort will commonly allay the trouble. The organism oc- 
curs in the milk of infected cows, and has even been found 
in large numbers in market milk. Whether it is a source of 
danger to man or to cattle, when it occurs in milk, has not yet 
been shown. 
Takosis of Goats.—This is a disease of goats only recently 
studied and found to be caused by a bacterium. It brings on a 
general weakness and wasting away, which finally results in death 
It has caused great loss among the Angora goats in the northern 
states, It is always fatal. 
