201 
; ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1907 OF V 
THE PRINCIPAL OF 
THE ROYAL VETERINARY COLLEGE. 
Research Laboratory. 
During the year 1907, 873 morbid specimens were forwarded 
for examination to the Laboratory at the Royal Veterinary 
College for Research in Comparative Pathology and Bacteri- 
ology. The number of similar specimens examined in the 
three preceding years were: — 1900, 855 ; 1905, 092 ; 1901, 654. 
The Laboratory was founded by the aid of a grant from the 
Royal Agricultural Society in 1890, and the annual grant of 
£200, which the Society at present makes to the College, is 
devoted to defraying part of the cost of the^ work which is 
carried on in the Laboratory. As has been mentioned in 
previous reports, this work is useful in two principal directions : 
(1) It is helpful to stock-owners and veterinary surgeons by 
affording assistance in the diagnosis and general investigation of 
obscure cases of disease ; and (2) the varied collection of mor- 
bid material sent for examination is of great value for the 
instruction of the students. 
Anthrax. 
The following Table shows the number of outbreaks of 
this disease, and the total number of animals attacked in each 
of the last six years : — 
Year 
Outbreaks 
Animals attacked 
1902 
678 
1,032 
1903 
767 
1,143 
1904 
1,049 
1,689 
1905 
970 
... . ' 1,317 
1906 
940 
1,326 
1907 
1,089 
1,466 
As judged by the number of outbreaks actually reported, 
anthrax has been more prevalent during the past year than in. 
any of the other years included in the Table, and a reference 
to the earlier statistics published by the Board of Agriculture 
and Fisheries shows that the figures for the past year are the 
highest since 1886, when anthrax was first made a notifiable 
disease. The fact that in Great Britain somewhere between 
one and two thousand animals annually die frona anthrax 
invests the disease with a considerable amount of importance, 
but nevertheless, from an econorhic point of view, it is much 
less serious than is generally supposed. The public estimate of 
its importance is no doubt partly due to the fact that the disease 
