236 Annual Report for 1906 of Royal Veterinary College . 
the first recorded case was described in Germany by Johne 
and Frothingham in 1895. For nearly ten years afterwards 
no other case of the disease appears to have been observed, 
or at least described ; but during the last three years further 
cases have been described as occurring in Germany by Markus 
(1904), in Belgium by Lienaux and van den Eeckhaut (1905), 
in Switzerland by Borgeaud (1905), and in Denmark by Bang 
(1906). Although only a comparatively sinall number of cases 
have thus been recorded as yet, there is every reason to believe 
that the disease is not, in the proper sense of the word, a new 
one ; on the contrary, it is quite possible that it may have 
existed as a disease of cattle from time immemorial, and have 
been overlooked through being confounded with other affections 
with somewhat similar symptoms. 
The above-mentioned authors, Johne and Frothingham, to 
whom belongs the honour of having, so to speak, discovered 
the disease, regarded it as a form or variety of tuberculosis, 
and other authors have since applied the name pseudo-tuber- 
culosis to it. As will presently be explained, the disease 
appears to be entirely distinct from tuberculosis, and it would 
therefore be very undesirable to apply to it any term likely 
to suggest a connection between the two diseases. The disease 
has also been termed chronic bovine enteritis, which desig- 
nation is in agreement with the fact that the principal lesions 
are situated in the intestines, and take the form of a slowly 
developing or chronic inflammation. Nevertheless, this name 
is not free from objection, since cattle may be the subjects of 
different forms of chronic inflammation of the intestines. 
Hence, the writer of this Report ventures to suggest that the 
disease should in future be known as “ Johne’s Disease.” 
During the past year the disease was identified as occurring 
on six different farms in various parts of the country, and an 
opportunity was obtained to make a complete post-mortem 
examination of five animals killed at an advanced stage of 
illness. The following account of the symptoms, course of 
the disease, and post-mortem appearances, is based on the 
observations made in connection with these cases. 
Symptoms and course of the disease . — In all the cases 
investigated there was a history of the occurrence of previous 
cases on the same farm, extending for several years back in 
some of them. The ages of the animals attacked varied from 
yearlings to adult or middle-aged cattle. In all cases the most 
striking symptom was more or less rapid loss of condition, the 
emaciation always becoming very pronounced when the course 
of the disease was not cut short by slaughter. In every case 
diarrhoea was also a prominent symptom throughout the greater 
part of the illness, but sometimes the owners were able to 
