244 
ALEXANDER BURR. 
l'he third case was that of an animal which had been shot 
at the Watertown Stock Yards, and carted into the slaughter 
house to be dressed ; there was a question in my mind 
whether the animal was not dead, or almost so, before shoot¬ 
ing. On cutting down the median line of the abdomen, the 
omentum covering the rumen was exposed, and was of a dirty 
gray color, and smelling badly, arousing my suspicions at 
once. The liver was secured, which was enlarged and yellow¬ 
ish ; spleen appeared normal. Feeling justified in my diag¬ 
nosis, the animal was condemned and at once sent to the dead 
house. The small number of cases of this disease is probably 
to be accounted for from the fact of it being the season in 
which Texas fever is not prevalent. 
The fourth on the list of diseases is anthrax. Five cases 
of this most dreaded disease have arrived on the grounds, 
three of which died, and two were shot at the stock-yards 
and brought here with the intention of dressing them 
for meat. The first of these I will describe. An order came 
for the abattoir ambulance to go to Watertown for a steer 
which had been shot; it was ordered to be sent into one of 
the houses ; knowing nothing of the case previously, I reached 
the house as they were cutting down through the median line 
of abdomen, exposing the omentum to view, which was almost 
black in color and had a very disagreeable gaseous odor, pu¬ 
trefaction having already set in, although the animal was sup¬ 
posed to have been dead less than half at hour. My suspi¬ 
cions were at once aroused ; from the rapid decomposition 
and my having had three cases two weeks previously, I 
was somewhat on my guard for anthrax, and after further 
convincing myself, I ordered the animal sent to the dead 
house; the floors were then cleaned, and necessary precau¬ 
tions taken before dressing any more on the same spot. On 
post mortem examination, no marked lesions of an anthracoid 
nature were found, although in the form which I take to have 
been apoplectic, one would not expect to find any marked 
lesions. However, feeling sure of my diagnosis, scrapings 
were taken from the spleen and examined microscopically for 
the bacillus anthracis, with positive results, the rods having 
