298  Annual  Report  for  1910  of  Royal  Veterinary  College. 
foetus  itself.  Similarly,  the  bacteria  can  generally  be  detected 
by  microscopic  examination  of  the  vaginal  discharge  for  a few 
days  after  the  act  of  abortion.  It  need  hardly  be  pointed  out 
that  it  was  of  fundamental  importance  to  determine  whether 
in  practice  it  would  actually  be  possible  to  distinguish  between 
cases  of  contagious  abortion  and  premature  calving  resulting 
from  some  other  cause  than  infection  with  this  particular 
microbe. 
Equal  importance  attaches  to  the  Committee’s  investigations 
touching  the  possibility  of  making  a correct  diagnosis  while 
the  disease  is  still  in  the  latent  condition,  that  is  to  say,  the 
possibility  of  determining  whether  a pregnant  cow  suspected 
in  consequence  of  having  been  exposed  to  contagion  is  actually 
infected  or  not.  In  this  direction  also  the  researches  of  the 
Committee  were  of  a reassuring  character,  and  although  the 
result  of  a larger  number  of  experiments  must  be  awaited,  there 
is  reason  to  hope  that  by  the  application  of  definite  tests  it  may 
be  possible  to  enter  an  infected  herd  and  separate  out  the 
animals  already  infected,  just  as  the  tuberculin  test  enables 
one  to  do  in  the  case  of  a tuberculous  herd. 
Assuming  that  the  possibility  of  making  an  accurate 
diagnosis  during  the  latent  stage  of  the  disease  should  thus 
be  proved,  it  is  obvious  that  the  owner  of  an  infected  herd 
will  in  future  be  placed  in  a much  more  favourable  position 
than  before  for  dealing  with  an  outbreak.  Meanwhile,  how- 
ever, one  has  to  reckon  with  the  fact  that  the  disease  is  already 
prevalent  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land,  and 
that  it  is  frequently  being  carried  into  previously  healthy 
herds  by  the  deliberate  or  careless  sale  of  diseased  cows.  It 
is  not  unlikely  that  the  disease  is  often  so  introduced  by  the 
purchase  of  a pregnant  cow  in  the  latent  stage  of  the  disease, 
and  in  other  cases  the  mischief  is  worked  by  a cow  which  has 
aborted  while  in  the  possession  of  her  last  owner. 
It  is  obvious  that  if  any  attempt  is  to  be  made  to  check 
the  spread  of  the  disease  by  administrative  measures,  it  must 
in  the  first  place  be  made  notifiable  under  an  Order  of  the 
Board  of  Agriculture,  and,  following  upon  that,  the  sale  of 
cows  that  have  aborted  from  the  contagious  disease  must  for 
a period  afterwards  be  forbidden.  These  may  be  regarded  as 
the  minimum  requirements,  but  it  must  be  confessed  that  even 
if  they  were  generally  enforced  over  a long  period  they  could 
not  be  expected  to  eradicate  the  disease,  because  there  would 
still  remain  the  danger  attaching  to  the  sale  from  infected 
herds  of  pregnant  cows  infected  with  the  disease  in  the  latent 
stage. 
Although  as  an  outcome  of  their  researches  regarding  the 
pathology  of  the  disease  the  Departmental  Committee  were 
