296 CENTRAL VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
and more so in some parts than in others. When portions of it 
were removed by the forceps, which was readily done, the mucous 
layer beneath was found to be swollen, as was also the submucous 
tissue, and there was besides a general hypersemic condition of 
the whole. The specimen before you is by no means an isolated 
one of the kind. Several such occurring in calves have been 
forwarded to me at different times from various parts of the 
country. Here is one of them, exhibiting extensive diphtheritic 
deposit on the mucous layer, as well as inflammatory infiltration 
and necrosis of it and the submucous tissue. I am not aware that 
attention has hitherto been called to diphtheria as occurring in 
bovine animals, and as yet nothing has been done to work out its 
pathological details. The great interest which attaches to this 
outbreak as bearing on the question at issue, is centred in the fact 
that the milk from the majority of these cows was drunk by a 
large number of persons, and in no single instance has it produced 
the slightest ill effects. Whether the milk referred to by Mr. 
Power was or was not the medium by which the contagion was 
conveyed over the infected area is purely a sanitary question, 
and cannot be dealt with here; but that the disorder known as 
“ garget,” either in its common or specific form, has any relations 
whatever with diphtheria cannot, I think, be sustained in the face 
of the evidence I have laid before you. I cannot close these 
remarks without expressing my deep regret that members of the 
sister profession should pay so little regard to the teachings of 
comparative pathology; and it is still more to be lamented that 
those who aspire to authority, and walk in the ways of science, 
should deign to disparage the labours of a kindred profession. 
To say that garget “is not much known to veterinary 
surgeons,” is to proclaim an unpardonable want of knowledge of 
veterinary literature, and a culpable indifference to real authority. 
It is manifest that without the aid of comparative pathology 
(State) medicine must continue to be a comparative failure, and 
the science of medicine as a whole weak and defective. The 
case before us has much interest for the veterinary profession, 
and points in a forcible manner to the necessity for watchfulness 
on our part over all matters relating to sanitary science in which 
animal diseases are concerned. 
Mr. Moore said they were very much indebted to Professor 
Axe for his defence of the profession in regard to the unjust 
accusation which had been made against it. It was clear that 
those who had accused veterinary surgeons of knowing nothing 
about garget had not a great knowledge of veterinary litera¬ 
ture. As the liver used to be the seat to which all diseases used 
to be referred, so milk at the present time is looked upon as the 
source of all infectious diseases. Why this should be so he could 
not understand. He had known calves to suck cows affected 
with garget without suffering in any way from the effect of 
the milk. In mammitis arising from contagious eczema it was 
otherwise. He had seen cattle suffering from throat disease, the 
