290  Annual  Report  for  1910  of  Royal  Veterinary  College. 
arrived  at  without  microscopic  examination  of  the  blood  of 
the  suspected  animals,  and  was  therefore  often  erroneous. 
During  the  period  embraced  in  the  Table  the  practice  of 
resorting  to  microscopic  examination  of  the  blood  before 
pronouncing  the  case  to  be  one  of  anthrax  has  been  general, 
but,  unfortunately,  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  errors 
in  diagnosis  are  still  very  frequent.  The  general  effect  of 
such  errors  is  to  increase  the  number  of  reported  outbreaks, 
for  the  error  usually  lies  in  mistaking  putrefactive  bacteria 
present  in  the  blood  for  anthrax  bacilli,  and  seldom  in  the 
opposite  direction.  According  to  the  recent  annual  reports 
of  the  Chief  Veterinary  Officer  to  the  Board  of  Agriculture, 
the  mistakes  thus  made  introduce  an  error  of  nearly  30  per 
cent,  into  the  published  returns.  This  consideration,  however, 
cannot  be  held  accountable  for  the  annual  increase  in  the 
number  of  outbreaks  shown  in  the  Table,  for  the  diagnosis  of 
anthrax  was  less  scientific  in  the  earlier  years  and  the 
proportion  of  errors  must  have  been  considerably  greater  than 
it  is  now. 
A new  Anthrax  Order,  which  comes  into  force  on 
January  1,  1911,  is  designed  to  reduce  the  number  of  errors 
in  diagnosis,  and  to  provide  the  Board  with  reliable  evidence 
to  show  whether  the  disease  is  actually  increasing  to  the 
extent  indicated  by  the  official  statistics  of  the  last  ten  years. 
Under  this  Order  it  will  be  the  duty  of  the  veterinary 
inspector  to  the  local  authority  to  send  a blood  preparation  to 
the  Board  of  Agriculture  in  every  case  in  which,  as  the  result 
of  his  own  examination,  he  is  unable  to  certify  that  the  animal 
has  not  died  from  anthrax.  In  every  such  case  the  carcass 
will  have  to  be  dealt  with  as  an  anthrax  carcass,  and  temporary 
precautions  (including  detention  of  cattle,  sheep,  or  swine  that 
may  have  been  in  contact  with  the  dead  animal)  will  be 
enforced  to  prevent  the  spread  of  infection,  but  the  place  will 
not  be  declared  an  anthrax-infected  place  until  the  diagnosis 
has  been  confirmed  by  one  of  the  Board’s  veterinary  inspectors. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  Order  will  mark  a great 
improvement  on  the  one  which  it  replaces,  in  the  sense  that  it 
will  in  the  course  of  time  provide  much  more  reliable  data 
regarding  the  incidence  of  the  disease  from  year  to  year. 
Upon  the  whole  it  will  also  work  to  the  advantage  of  owners, 
who  will  in  future  have  the  assurance  that  they  are  not  being 
put  to  wholly  unnecessary  trouble  and  expense  because  a case 
of  quite  another  nature  has  been  wrongly  diagnosed  as  one  of 
anthrax. 
The  new  Order  does  not  in  any  way  vary  the  provisions  of 
the  old  in  regard  to  the  duty  of  the  owner.  The  primary 
responsibility  of  the  owner  is  to  give  notice  of  the  fact  to  the 
