494 



Prof. J. C. Ewart. 



frequent relapses characterised chiefly by great prostration, which 

 lasted from two to three days, and not a few suffered from attacks of 

 a condition closely resembling muscular and articular rheumatism. 



There were three fatal cases. It is to be remarked, however, that 

 these patients were elderly people (over seventy years of age), and 

 that they seem to have succumbed to the prostration produced by the 

 disease. 



Arrangements at the Dairy. 



The microscopic examination of the milk of the 3rd April showed 

 that it contained numerous organisms ; hence I visited the dairy in 

 order if possible to learn how these organisms could have found their 

 way into the milk. The cows, as far as I could judge, were perfectly 

 healthy, their udders clean, and no abrasion about the muzzles such as 

 exist in cattle affected with foot-and-mouth disease. The food at the 

 time of my visit consisted of hay, straw, grains (" draff "), bran, oil- 

 cake, and turnips. The drinking water came from a cistern which was 

 placed in a corner of the large open byre immediately over the heads 

 of several cows. 



The cistern was made of concrete and only loosely covered with a 

 thin wooden lid, consisting of at least two separate pieces, which had 

 at one time been connected by a leather hinge. This cistern was 

 capable of containing about 300 gallons of water. On further inquiry 

 I found that all the water used about the dairy for washing the cans, 

 for dissolving the nitrate of potash added to the milk, came from this 

 cistern, and that somewhere about 600 gallons of water were used 

 daily ; hence the level of the water would be constantly falling and 

 rising in the cistern, and the air from the byre constantly passing in 

 and out of the cistern. Two days previous to my visit the use of the 

 cistern had been discontinued. On going into the cistern I found a 

 small quantity of water at the bottom, and secured a sample of it for 

 future examination. I noticed also that fungi flourished on the inside 

 of the wooden lid, and that some parts of the sides of the cistern, 

 notwithstanding the scrubbing the cistern had just undergone, were 

 coated with a thin layer of what might at one time have been a scum 

 on the surface — a scum formed during the winter or during February, 

 when the water supply was cut off for several days. 



The hay used for feeding the cows was cut into small pieces and 

 steamed in a large tank before it was used. After being steamed it was 

 allowed to cool and then conveyed to the byre in wooden troughs. 

 Enough was steamed at a time to last for two or three days. The day 

 after the steaming the bottom of the tank was found to be filled with a 

 strong infusion of hay. Some of this infusion I carried off for examina- 

 tion. On the same level as this tank, and only separated from it by a 

 narrow partition, was a tank of about the same size, which was used 



