SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
4f>5 
No. 3.—Black yearling heifer: was too wild to approach, but seemed to be 
convalescing. Mr. Spalding said she had lost a good deal of flesh within three or 
four weeks. 
In addition to these creatures Mr. Spalding had a cow, five years old, on a 
farm at the easterly end of the mountain, which presented similar symptoms to 
those manifested by the young cattle on the mountain. Her temperature was, 
Saturday morning, July 30th, 102f°, breathing rapid and jerky, no marked dull¬ 
ness on percussion, but on auscultation moist rales could be heard over both 
lungs, husky cough, conjunctivitis, sore throat, skin dry and scaly, and cow 
somewhat emaciated. The milk was said to have a bitter taste, and that morning 
had to be thrown away. 
In a pasture on the Dunckley farm, on the north side of the mountain, there 
was another cow which had been sick, but was evidently convalescing, belonging 
to Andrew Holt, brother of Dr. Holt, Surgeon-General of Massachusetts. 
On the morning of July 31st, Dr. Holt and myself examined this cow care¬ 
fully. Her temperature was lOl^- 0 , breathing rapid and jerky, no marked dull¬ 
ness on percussion, moist rales over both lungs on auscultation. She had aborted 
a few weeks before. At that time she’was probably in a high state of fever, and 
abortion is not uncommon among cows when the temperature runs very high. 
After finishing our physical examination, the animal was destroyed and a 
post-mortem examination made. 
Autopsy revealed disease of both longs, the small broncliii being full of a 
frothy material, the lungs not collapsing to the same extent as in a state of health 
after opening the thorax, and they presented an appearance of a case of pneu¬ 
monia undergoing resolution. The postero-inferior portion of the right lung still 
had a somewhat hepatized appearance. The peritoneum showed patches of in¬ 
flammation, appearing in places to be thickened and congested, slightly ulcerated 
in a few spots. 
The other organs, as far as a hasty post-mortem would allow, appeared 
healthy. 
The animals attacked with this disease die in the course of the first four or 
five days, during the congestive stage. If they live beyond this period they 
slowly recover, but lose a good deal of flesh in consequence. Yearlings, on 
account of their youth, suffer most seriously; milch cows are occasionally at¬ 
tacked, owing to the depleting influence of lactation; other cattle appear to have 
a resisting power to the influence of the infectious principle. 
Outbreaks of a similar disease were reported from various towns in Cheshire 
county earlier in the season, but inquiry among the farmers there showed that 
very little sickness had existed among the cattle in that locality this summer, and 
at the time of my visit the young cattle in the pastures of Cheshire county ap¬ 
peared to be healthy. At the time of making the post mortem on the Holt cow 
I inoculated some test tubes of agar agar from the fresh cut surface of the hepa¬ 
tized portion of the lung. In one of these test tubes an almost pure growth of a 
small micrococcus developed. I got a pure cultivation of this in a second genera¬ 
tion on agar agar. It formed a slowly growing white colony on the surface of 
agar agar, and formed small colonies close together along the needle track. 
From this cultivation I inoculated some test tubes of veal broth, August 17th, 
