708 
W. F. WEESE. 
The causation of the disease, according to our present views 
of purulent inflammations, must be attributed to the presence of 
schizomycetes. The micro-organism responsible for this partic¬ 
ular disease has not been definitely determined, nor systemati¬ 
cally studied, so far as the author is aware. Leber, Berliner, 
Erberth, and others have experimented with fungi on the cor¬ 
nea. By inoculations upon the cornea they have produced puru¬ 
lent inflammations which spread rapidly, involved the substance 
of the cornea and resulted in purulent iritis, which conditions 
have been attributed to migration of the fungi to deep portions 
of the eye. These conditions are approximately attained in the 
natural course of the disease under consideration, although ex¬ 
perimentally the diseased conditions are only produced by direct 
inoculations. Corneal ulcer antedates abscess of anterior cham¬ 
ber, which would lead one to infer that the infection came from 
without. The infiltrated superficial lamellae of the cornea soon 
break down, the focus of suppuration lies bare and this presents 
favorable conditions for migration of germs to the internal struc¬ 
tures of the eye. The writer believes that flies are the medium 
through which many infections are consummated. 
The disease rarely assumes an epidemic character, spreading 
at most to adjacent farms between which there is usually found 
to be more or less direct communication of attendants, by means 
of whom the contagion can doubtless be carried. 
In large herds, where the animals are not housed, it is rare 
to have over fifty per cent, become affected, without antiseptic 
precautions or treatment. Under more restrictive methods of 
keeping cattle the percentage will be materially increased. 
Many cases will make a spontaneous recovery in two or three 
weeks, a variable number will lose one or both eyes, the latter 
termination requiring two or three months for its consummation 
and subsidence of inflammation. 
Clinically, the contamination of healthy cattle in an infected 
herd may be obviated by rigid precautionary measures, of which 
isolation of affected cattle may be cited as the fundamental rule 
of action and the unaffected animals treated by free applications 
