114 Annual Report for 1893 from the Rrlncipal of the 
ceding four or five months ; she received grass, corn, and compound 
cake the same as the bullock was fed upon. The two animals were a 
quarter of a mile apart, and yet both died from anthrax on the same 
day. Here, then, was a case in which the circumstances were un- 
usually suspicious, and it was determined to test the cake. The 
residue of the bag of cake that the two animals had been fed upon 
for several days prior to the date of their death, and four or five 
cakes taken from as many other bags, were accordingly forwarded 
to the Veterinary College, where, with the exception of about 1 lb., 
the whole was consumed by a heifer and two sheep. The heifer 
consumed about 3 lb. of the cake daily for a week, while the sheep 
were given it ad lib. during the same time, but none of them 
developed any abnormal symptom in consequence. A small quantity 
of the cake from the bag that was being used at the time of the 
animals’ death was triturated with sterilised water, and when the 
coarser particles had subsided about twenty drops of the liquid were 
injected under the skin of each of two guinea-pigs, but in neither 
case was anthrax thus produced. 
In the second case the precise circumstances incriminating the 
cake were not communicated, but it was suspected of having been 
the cause of an outbreak of anthrax. It was tested in the same 
manner as the sample above referred to, and with the same negative 
result. 
It must be admitted that these experiments do not absolutely 
prove that the two outbreaks in question were not caused by cake, 
but their negative result was the strongest evidence against that 
view obtainable in the circumstances, and stock-owners may rest 
assured that there is not on record a single alleged case of infection 
with anthrax by means of cake that will bear examination. 
In another instance that came under observation the outbreak 
was attributed to infection by means of “ shoddy,” which is largely 
used in some districts as a hop manure. As it is well known that 
foreign wool often contains the spores of anthrax, there is nothing 
inherently improbable in the view that “ shoddy,” if eaten or inhaled, 
might infect animals with the disease ; but no opportunity to prove 
this material infective by means of experiment has yet been afforded. 
Anthrax communicated to Dogs . — In most of the standard text- 
books on bacteriology the dog is credited with an almost absolute 
immunity against anthrax, but this view is contrary to the experience 
of many veterinary surgeons, and, as the following observation will 
show, dogs sometimes fall easy victims to the disease. In October last 
the carcass of a dog and two dead ferrets were forwarded to the 
Research Laboratory for post-mortem examination. The only history 
accompanying these was to the effect that the animals had died 
after a very short illness, the chief symptoms in the case of the dog 
being great depression and twitching of the muscles. The examina- 
tion disclosed the fact that both dog and ferrets had died from 
anthrax. In the dog the spleen was swollen to triple its normal 
volume, and there was marked inflammation with abundant gelatin- 
ous exudate in the region of the throat. The spleen was much en- 
