294 CENTRAL VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
A strict inquiry was instituted as to the system of milking, 
feeding, and general management, as well as into the sanitary 
condition of the premises. The operation of milking was care¬ 
fully watched, and strictly performed ; every care was likewise 
exercised to guard against the ordinary known causes of garget, 
such as mechanical injury, exposure, gastric disturbance, &c., but 
without producing any abatement in the spread of the disease. 
The food was changed more or less completely, and the general 
arrangement rendered as complete as could be wished for, but 
with no good result. The sanitary condition of the sheds was as 
good as could be desired, and everything relating to health seemed 
to be as complete as the resources of a London dairy will allow. 
The progress of the disease was singularly rapid, and generally 
rendered one or more of the glands useless as milk-forming 
organs, and in several instances completely disorganised the 
whole. The initial symptoms of the disease were essentially 
systemic, and consisted in rigors, more or less severe, a staring 
coat, general dulness, and an impaired appetite. The internal 
temperature w T as exalted from two to five degrees, and in some 
instances this was associated w T ith a brief attack of diarrhoea. The 
pulse was increased in frequency and in fulness, and the general 
condition of the body denoted a febrile state. The secretion of 
milk was at first simply diminished without having undergone 
any perceptible alteration in its physical properties. Soon, 
however, the mammary gland became hot and tumid, and 
the milk watery, and laden with caseous flocculi. In 
a short time the gland became enlarged, tense, and painful 
to the touch, and masses of caseine and purulent matter 
formed the bulk of what could be obtained from it. 
Purulent infiltration of the diseased part quickly followed, and 
abscesses varying in size and number in different cases were 
developed in the structure of the organ. In some instances 
pysemic symptoms supervened in the local change and neces¬ 
sitated the animal being destroyed. The gland-structure was 
primarily involved. I mention this because in an article recently 
published in the Veterinary Journal , describing several out¬ 
breaks of a similar nature which appeared on the Continent, it is 
remarked that the teats became first diseased, and that the malady 
extended from them in the direction of the ramifications of the 
lactiferous sinuses and ducts. That this form of “ garget ” is of 
a specific nature seems to me in the highest degree probable, but 
that it has no etiological relations with diphtheria is abundantly 
attested by the fact that although for some time the chief bulk 
of the milk of this dairy must have been contaminated with that 
from the diseased animals, the district over which it was distri¬ 
buted continued as free from diphtheria as any other part of the 
metropolis. If, therefore, this be the specific form of garget 
on which Mr. Smee has laid so much stress, and to which, by 
implication, he has referred such dangerous properties, it is satis- 
