106 



ANTHRAX 



" Comparing the figures in the fourth column with 

 those in the second, we see that a certain number 

 of veterinary surgeons neglect to send their reports 

 at the end of the year. The number of reports 

 that come to us even tends to get less each year. 

 The fact is, that many veterinary surgeons who do 

 vaccinations every year content themselves with 

 writing, ' The results are always very good ; it is 

 useless to send you reports that are always the 

 same.' 



" We have every reason to believe, as a matter of 

 fact, that those who send no reports are satisfied ; 

 for if anything goes wrong with the herds, they 

 do not fail to let us know it at once by special 

 letters. 



" Anyhow, thanks chiefly to new veterinary 

 surgeons who do send reports, we see that in the 

 twelve years, up to ist January of this year, we 

 have had exact returns as to 1,788,879 sheep and 

 200,962 cattle — about half of all those that were 

 vaccinated. 



" The mortality among sheep and cattle is 

 slightly higher after the first vaccination than after 

 the second. This fact seems to us easy to explain. 

 The animals reported dead include both those that 

 died as the result of the vaccinations, and those 

 that, being already infected at the time, died of the 

 actual disease. But, at the time of second vaccina- 

 tion, the animals are already more or less protected : 

 hence a lower mortality from the actual disease, and 

 a lower sum total. 



"The whole loss of sheep is about 1 per cent. ; 



