662 
NEWS AND ITEMS. 
meiit. Especially is tliis true with reference to the division re¬ 
lating to the work of the Bureau of Animal Industry, it dealing 
very fully with the system of meat inspection, showing the 
number of ante-mortem examinations, as well as the number of 
post-mortem inspections, the microscopical inspection of pork, 
inspection of vessels and export animals. Southern cattle in- 
SDection, inspection of imported animals, the proposed extension 
of meat inspection, destruction of cattle ticks, black leg, rabies, 
eradication of sheep scab, hog cholera and tuberculosis, work of 
the biochemic division, the biological laboratory, etc. 
Inexpert Testimony. —The editor of the American Vet¬ 
erinary Review, commenting upon some remarks in these 
columns anent the conflicting testimony of the alleged experts 
in the Euetgert trial, thinks that the trouble lay in the fact that 
the human anatomists were talking on a subject that they 
actually knew little or nothing about, namely, comparative or 
veterinary anatomy. The writer evidently believes that there 
are many veterinary anatomists in this country who could give 
the points of osseous differentiation between a woman and a hog 
off-hand; indeed, he says so in nearly these words. It would 
perhaps be well if both sides called in veterinary instead of hu¬ 
man anatomists at the next trial. It could then possibly be 
seen whether or not the hired witnesses in the first trial had 
testified on a subject of which they had no knowledge, when a 
man’s life was dependent upon the nature of their testimony.— 
(^Medical Record.) 
A Proeific Bitch. —When Albert H. Van Brunt, the well- 
known breeder of St. Bernard dogs of Elatlands, E. I., began 
breeding he purchased a smooth-coated bitch named Alpha, by 
Champion Ben Eomond, he by Champion Barry, dam Champion 
Apollona, by Champion Apollo, she being then a ptippy. He 
still owns her, and she has recently given birth to what he be¬ 
lieves to be her last litter, as she is now nine years old. Her 
first litter was whelped when she was eighteen months old, the 
number at this birth being I2, then 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, after 
which the number began to decrease, thus: 15, i2, ii, and 
finally 5. About three years ago she contracted pneumonia 
after parturition, and the entire litter died, since which time at 
each successive whelping she became feverish and in a day or 
two every pup would die, none living except three which were 
given to a foster mother immediately after birth. Her record 
to date is 130 pups, and she is only nine years old. 
