820 
NEWS AND ITEMS. 
trial. The Chicago Veterinary Society at its meeting on Dec. 
ioth passed a unanimous resolution sympathizing with the 
doctor and exonerating him from all blame, as his previous 
character is faultless and as his unassuming and amiable man¬ 
ners had long since won for him popularity among his col¬ 
leagues. 
A Maine Freak. —The most wonderful freak of nature 
which has lately been reported was shown a representative 
of the Journal this morning by Veterinary Surgeon Fdward I. 
Brackett, of this city. A few days ago Dr. Brackett was called 
to the farm of J. S. Sanborn to remove a bone tumor from the 
head of a valuable horse owned by a Providence, R. I., gentle¬ 
man. When the tumor was removed a piece of perfectly white 
bone was found which was an exact imitation of the head of a 
dog. The outline of the face, the eyes and the ears are very 
distinct, and, in the rest of the tumor removed, the entire outline 
of the animal is traceable. Mr. Sanborn considers it one of the 
most remarkable things he ever saw, and it has much interes¬ 
ted all who have seen it. The curiosity can be seen at the office 
of Brackett & Zeigler on Chapel Street. The writer is free to 
say that if he had not seen this phenomenon it would have re¬ 
quired some faith for him to have believed the story .—Lewiston 
( Me .) Even. Jon rn a l. 
Rinderpest in South Africa. —Professor Koch, accom¬ 
panied by an assistant bacteriologist, Dr. Kohlstock, has gone 
to the Cape of Good Hope for the purpose of discovering the 
cause and suggesting a method of suppressing the rinderpest. 
Hitherto neither preventive nor curative methods has proven 
of any value. While it is conceded that the disease is of mi- 
crobic origin, the particular coccus has not been determined. 
Many investigators have discovered organisms which they claim 
to be the cause, and it is to be hoped that the distinguished 
German bacteriologist may find an antitoxin. Mr. Frank R. 
Thompson, late special rinderpest commissioner, states that the 
conditions in South Africa are most alarming ; that the disease 
will not disappear until it reaches the dock gates at Capetown; 
that not one per cent, of the cattle in Cape Colony can be saved, 
and that there is grave danger of war with the natives in conse¬ 
quence of the hardships necessarily inflicted by the quarantine 
regulations, and the great destruction of infected herds. 
A Dong Canine Fast. —Mr. J. Mathews, Veterinary Sur¬ 
geon, Bangor, has furnished the Veterinary Journal (England) 
