THERMOMETRY IN CONTAGIOUS PLEURO-PNEUMONIA . 107 
Another number of the Annales contains the analysis of a 
report made by M. Peters, of Mecklenburgh, upon the variations 
of the internal temperature of domestic animals, and upon the 
mode of appreciation of these variations. But the interesting 
experiments of Peters were made only on diseases of horses and 
in variola of sheep. 
Concerning contagious pleuro-pneumonia, the treatises upon 
the temperature are more recent. In the annual reports of the 
Veterinary Department of the Privy Council of England, for 
1873 and 1874, Prof. Brown mention the subject extensively. 
It is perhaps unknown, that, in Great Britain, the slaughter , 
in case of p>leuro-pneumonia, is obligatory since September, 1878 ; 
but certainly it is unknown that in Belgium this measure is 
carried according to the diagnosis of the inspectors of the local 
authorities; and that amongst those inspectors, 1678 in number 
in 1873, 22 per cent, only are veterinarians, 59 per cent, belong 
to the police, and the remaining have no professional knowledge. 
It is specially to the ignorance of these inspectors that the 
English report of 1873 attributes the failure of the obligatory 
slaughtering. The disease must be well marked for these func¬ 
tionaries to condemn the animal. I claim that the knowledge 
of the experienced veterinarians are necessary to determine if 
an animal is palp>ably affected. I have mentioned cases where 
some of my colleagues, as w T ell as myself, have made errors and 
taken pneumonia for pleuro-pneumonia, but I will return to this 
point in time. 
The report of 1873 states that when pleuro-pneumonia is 
recognized by the inspectors in one or two animals amongst a 
herd of cattle, it is certain that the disease is to be recognized 
amongst the others only by the rising in the temperature of the 
body of the animal. 
To find slaughtering efficacious, according to the report, in¬ 
fected animals must be separated from the moment the temper¬ 
ature rises to or above 103° Falir. without any apparent 
cause. 
But this condition of the internal temperature of the body 
amongst domestic animals cannot be left in the hands of a 
