894 
NEWS AND ITEMS. 
Directors McKachran and Diautard recently inspected 
the Pasteur Institute and the Alfort School, where Director 
d^rasbot received them and showed them the arrangements of 
one of the best veterinary institutions on the Continent. 
A Chicago man has made a steam bath cabinet for horses 
and expects to open up a horse Turkish and Russian bath estab¬ 
lishment at the Harlem race track. It is offered as a substitute 
for “ dope ” and the electric battery in removing stiffness and 
soreness. 
Dr. Niees Recovering. —The many friends of Dr. W. B. 
Niles, of the Veterinary Department of the Iowa Agricultural 
College, will be pleased to learn that he is now convalescing 
from an attack of septicaemia, from which he was, for a time, 
very seriously ill. 
“Star Pointer” for BuROPE.—It is announced that 
James A. Murphy will take Star Pointer and Guinette (one of 
the most promising candidates for record honors next season) to 
the Continent next fall and give Europeans a view of a high- 
class side-wheeler. ^ 
^ Governor L. M. Shaw, of Iowa, has announced the reap¬ 
pointment of Dr. J. I. Gibson as State Veterinary Surgeon, 
almost a year before his present term expires. This is prima- 
facie evidence of the satisfactory manner in which the business 
of that department has been conducted. 
D. P. Frame, M. D. C., of Colorado Springs, who has held 
the position of Food Inspector for that city for some time, and 
who is Secretary of the Colorado State Veterinary Medical Asso¬ 
ciation, has received an appointment under the Bureau of Ani¬ 
mal Industry, and assigned to duty at Kansas City. 
Reindeer for Aeaska. —The United States Government 
has an importation of 530 reindeer now on the Atlantic e7i 
for New York. They were purchased in Norway by Eieut. 
Devore, of the War Department, and are to be sent to Alaska. 
Five hundred tons of Iceland moss are aboard the vessel to be 
used as food for them. 
Smaee Percentage of Loss in Shipping Cattee to 
Europe.— Shipping live cattle across the Atlantic is attended 
with comparatively small loss nowadays. During 1897 one of 
the large steamship lines took 40,725 head from Boston and the 
loss is reported at only twenty-eight head. Better ventilation 
between decks in hot weather is about the only improvement 
that is now needed on the steamers. 
