Annual Report from Principal , Royal Veterinary College. Ill 
eye. There is no reason to suppose that the disease is a new one. 
It may, indeed, have existed from an early time, but its true character 
would not be suspected unless it had occurred to the inquirer to 
examine a scraping from the inflamed intestine under the microscope. 
A fatal disease among young pheasants was found to depend 
upon parasites in the intestine, the invaders in this instance being 
much lower in the scale of creation than the lowly worm. The 
parasite belongs to the Protozoa, the first dawning of animal life. 
The organisms are known as Coccidia, a class of beings which from 
their constant presence in higher animals are attracting from the 
pathologist special attention, which they escaped for a long period on 
account of a false idea of their insignificance. 1 
To the recorded investigations might have been added, if more 
space had been available, observations on an important investiga- 
tion into the causes and nature of louping-ill among sheep ; a fatal 
disease among calves affecting the tongue and structures of the 
mouth ; the history of the ringworm fungus, and other diseases 
which have been and are still under observation, and will form sub- 
jects for future reports. 
G. T. Brown. 
February, 1894. 
Professor McFadyean's Report. 
Anthrax. 
During the past year a number of interesting observations have 
been made regarding anthrax, and an attempt will be made to 
summarise these in the following paragraphs. 
Diagnosis . — During the twelve months viscera from forty-nine 
cases of suspected anthrax have been submitted to microscopic 
examination, and of these nineteen were found to be anthrax and 
nineteen not anthrax, while in the remaining eleven the examina- 
tion did not justify an opinion regarding the cause of death. As 
regards the meaning of the expression “suspected of anthrax,” it 
may be explained that the ground of the suspicion usually was that 
the animal had been unexpectedly found dead, or that it had died 
after a brief illness for which no cause other than anthrax could be 
assigned. As is well known, the returns published by the Board of 
Agriculture indicate that there lias been a serious increase in the 
prevalence of anthrax during the past year, but in the light of the 
examinations made in the Research Laboratory grave doubts regard- 
ing the accuracy of inspectors’ reports are justifiable. This is 
probably true at all times, but mistakes in diagnosis appear to have 
been unusually frequent during the summer of 1893. For such 
mistakes there is very little excuse, for when an opportunity to make 
a post-mortem examination soon after death is afforded, there is no 
difficulty in arriving at a certain conclusion as to whether a given 
animal has or has not been affected with anthrax. 
1 See note on “ Some Relations of Biology to Agriculture ” (Journal, 
R.A.S.E., 3rd. Series, Vol. II., Part II., 1891, p. 434 ). — Ed. 
