52 
I). MOEACHRAN. 
Certain conditions of the system are favorable to the recep¬ 
tion of the poison when exposed to it. Thus during the summer 
season a stock of dairy cows were kept in a low damp ill-venti¬ 
lated byre, in a suburb of Montreal; during the winter they 
were kept on what may be truly termed starvation allowance. In 
spring the poor cattle were little better than living skeletons, 
most of them lousy, many of them being so weak as not to 
be able to rise without assistance ; a number of them died in 
calving. 
The owner rented a large pasture field which had at one time 
been a burial place for animals, a knacker’s yard having been at 
one time at the end of the field. There had been a large quantity 
of snow during the winter, and the field being low, lying flat, but 
not what could be called swampy, the water lay long on it in the 
spring, which was protracted but was followed by hot fine 
weather, which produced a rapid growth of succulent grass. A 
few days after the cattle were put on the field, one or two died 
suddenly, next day three or four, and in a week about fifteen 
died, and these the best in the herd. 
As usual under these circumstances, poison was suspected, yet 
the owner did not know any enemy whom he could suspect. 
Wiseacies accounted for it by a white fox having crossed the 
field. On being consulted, I at once explained the true nature 
of the disease, dhe disease is seen in the same field every sum- 
mei, and doubtless will continue to occur as long as it is used as 
a pasture for animals susceptible to the poison. 
I do not wish to be understood to consider the anmmic condi¬ 
tion observed in these cattle as essential to the predisposition to 
leceiving the anthrax poison ; numerous instances have come un- 
dei my notice in which the animals were in good condition, and 
apparently in perfect health, but it is certain that reduced vitality 
renders them more susceptible to the action of the poison. 
While it is evident from the results of the most careful inves¬ 
tigations into the cause of the disease, the water, the food, or the 
soil itself may be the active factors or intermediate bearers of the 
poison of anthrax, it does not originate in them. 
It- may be interesting here to notice the result of a series of 
