188 ABSTRACTS AND REPORTS.

According to age-Calves under 6 weeks, 5; 6 weeks to I year, 37; 1 to 3 years, 427; 3 to 6 years, J289; over 6 years, 1342.

According to race or stamp-Lowland stamp, 166o; mountain cattle, 403 ; foreign cattle, 173; crosses, 864.

Of these animals 3 I were affected with tuberculosis of the udder.­Wochenschrift fllr Tht"erheilkzmde lind Viehzltcht.

MEAT INSPECTION AT BERLIN.

BETWEEN 1St April 1889 and 31St March 1890 there were slaughtered at the Central Slaughter House of Berlin 154,218 cattle, 125>338 calves, 430,362 sheep, 442, t 2 I pigs.

The total number of animals slaughtered amounted to 1,152,039 head, against 1,075,529 head in the previous twelve months.

As a result of the veterinary examination, the following animals were con­demned as unfit for human food-1889 cattle, 129 calves, 174 sheep, and 4159 pigs.

Of these the following were condemned on account of tuberculosis-1397 cattle, 30 calves, 5 sheep, and 1636 pigs.

On account of tape-worm hydatids-389 cattle, 1 calf, and 1570 pigs. On account of trichin~-292 pigs, or 0'064 p.c. of the total number

slaughtered. On account of different diseases, organs or parts of organs (in the great

majority of cases, lungs and livers) were condemned from 74,830 animals. Of spoiled flesh 2345 kilo. were condemned. The number of calves condemned as being less than full term was 2232. In the municipal stations for the examination of the carcases of animals

slaughtered elsewhere, there were examined during the year-137,074 quarters of beef, 141,884 calves, 68,004 sheep, and 104,660 pigs.

Of the foregoing'there were condemned 179 quarters of beef, 1 sheep, 15 pigs, and 102 organs, on account of tuberculosis; on account of tape-worm hydatids, 62 quarters of beef, 22 heads of cattle, 6 tongues of cattle, 1 calf, and 83 pigs; on account of trichiri~, 12 pigs; on account of their watery character, 104 quarters of beef, 341 calves, 7 pigs, and 30 organs and parts; on account of liver flukes, thread worms, etc., 548 lungs and livers.

The staff engaged in meat inspection at the Central Abattoir comprises (besides a number of common workmen) 239 persons, including the director, 19 veterinary surgeons, and 6 assistant veterinary surgeons.

Other 15 veterinary surgeons are engaged in the inspection of carcases slaughtered elsewhere and brought into the city.-Berliner Tlzierarztliche Wochenschrift.

EXPERIMENTS WITH MILK FROM TUBERCULOUS COWS.

IN the American Veterinary Relll'ew for June J890, Dr Ernst of Boston publishes a preliminary report regarding an extensive series of experiments with milk from tuberculous cows now being carried on at the instigation of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture. The experiments, it is stated, have been carried out with the greatest care, and with every possible precau­tion against accidental contamination. Before the experiments were begun the farm buildings set apart for housing the cows were thoroughly cleaned from top to bottom. Every portion of old manure was carted away, as well

ABSTRACTS AND REPORTS.

as all the old earth. The whole of the woodwork was scrubbed and then washed with corrosive sublimate solution (I : 1000) and finally white-washed, and every care was taken to secure good drainage and free ventilation. The result and effectiveness of all this was demonstrated by the fact that every animal brought to the place made a most marked improvement in its general condition, while some of them even went so far as to appear to get well.

In deciding whether the milk from any cow affected with tuberculosis is dangerous, when the udder shows no lesion, the first point is to see whether the milk contains the infectious principle or not. In that case, of course, the infectious principle is the bacillus of tuberculosis, and attention was turned to that for some time. The observations were carried on over a long space of time, and were made as follows:-The milk was taken from the cow in the morning-or evening, as the case might be-the udders and teats having just been thoroughly cleaned. The receptacle was an Erlenmeyer flask, stoppered with cotton-wool and thoroughly sterilised by heat. The specimen was taken at once to the laboratory, there placed in conical glasses, with ground-glass covers-the whole of these having been carefully cleansed beforehand-and then allowed to stand in a clean refrigerator for twenty-four to forty-eight hours, and sometimes for seventy-two hours.

At the end of that time from ten to twenty cover-glass preparations were made from various parts of the milk or cream. These were stained after Ehrlich's twenty-four hour method, with fuchsin and methyline blue as a contrast colour, and then searched with an immersion lens.

One hundred and seventeen sets of cover glasses from as many different samples of milk were prepared for examination in the way spoken of above. Of these specimens three spoiled, i.e., turned sour or acid before the examina­tion was completed, and had to be rejected, leaving, therefore, one hundred and fourteen san1ples of milk of which the examination was completed. These samples were obtained from thirty-six different cows, all of them presenting more or less distinct signs of tuberculosis of the lungs or elsewhere, but none of them having marked signs of disease of the udder of any kind.

Of these samples of milk there were found sez'enteen in which the bacilli of tuberculosis were distinctly present; that is to say, the actual 21irus 10as seen in 10 per cent. of the samples examined. These seventeen samples of infectious milk came from ten different cows, showing a percentage of detected infectiousness of 27'7 per cent.

The bacilli were found in the milk nine times after the cream had risen, and in the cream eight times after it had separated from the milk.

In regard to the constancy of the occurrence of the bacilli in the milk, in two of the ten cows in whose milk the bacilli were found but one sample of the milk was examined; and the bacilli were found in one sample out of several examined at different times in two cases. In the remaining six cows bacilli were found two or more times in different samples of milk. So that, as far as they go, these results seem to indicate that the bacilli are present with a fair degree of constancy.

In nine of t~e seventeen cases the time of the milking and the portion of the milk used were noted; that is to say, a sample was taken from the first of the milking, or the last of the milking, and then cover glasses made from the milk or cream. In these cases bacilli were found in the cream three times, and in the milk four times, from the first of the milking; in samples. from the last of the milking, in the cream nCl times and in the milk four times.

An interesting series of experimental' inoculations in rabbits and guinea-pigs with milk or cream from various cows, in varying quantities and at different times, was also made. --'

Out of fourteen cows used the milk was shown by inoculation experiments to be infectious in seven, or 50 per cent. "\

Thirteen calves were fed for varying lengths Ob'~e with milk from cows

ABSTRACTS AND REPORTS.

affected with tuberculosis, but not of the udder. Of these, the material was thrown away from one before the microscopic examination, and this should be rejected in the final results. Of the remainder, there were five positive results obtained and one suspicious. The latter was counted as negative, for the reason that, although giant cells and granulation tissue were seen, no bacilli were found. There were, therefore, five positive results out of twelve, or 41 '66 per cent.

In the series of feeding experiments on one set of pigs, the milk being given to them from the same cows as before, there were seven pigs used in all, from one litter and healthy parents. Of these, examination showed negative results in two, positive results in two, one was subjected to a very hasty microscopic examination, and the material from two was thrown away by mistake. There are to be counted, therefore, only five, giving as success­ful results 40 per cent.

The conclusions drawn are :-1st, and emphatically, that the milk from cows affected with tuberculosis in

any part of the body may contain the virus of the disease. 2nd. That the virus is present whether there is disease of the udder or not. 3rd. That there is no ground for the assertion that there must be a lesion

of the udder before the milk can contain the infection of tuberculosis. 4th. That, on the contrary, the bacilli of tuberculosis are present and

active in a very large proportion of cases in the milk of cows affected with tuberculosis but with no discoverable lesion of the udder.

POISONOUS AND DEFENSIVE ALBUMOSES.

DR SIDNEY MARTIN, one of the research scholars of the British Medical Association, communicated to the Royal Society, on May 22, the results of a research commenced over a year ago, at the instance of the medical officer to the Local Government Board. Dr Martin's research has been of a com­prehensive and thorough character; he has used as the fluid in which to grow the bacillus a solution of pure alkali-albumen made from serum, with the addition of mineral salts having the composition of the salts of the serum. After being allowed to grow for ten days or a fortnight, the ba,cilli were filtered off through porcelain, and the fluid filtrate chemically examined; he found it to contain leucin and tyrosin, an alkaloid, and three proteids, namely, proto- and deutero-albumose, and a t,race of peptone. The alkaloid yields a strongly alkaline solution, and is a powerful base, readily forming salts with acids; its solutions give reactions with certain of the ordinary tests for alkaloids, namely, precipitates with phospho-tungstic, phospho-molybdic, and phospho-antimonic acids, and with platinic chloride; the sulphate crystallises in small needles or prisms, the oxalate in long branching needles or flat plates. The two albumoses are strongly alkaline, and do not lose this quality when treated with absolute alcohol, benzine, chloroform, or ether, nor when dialysed for long periods. Their alkalinity, therefore, appears to be an inherent quality, and Dr Martin suggests that this may explain their toxic properties, the alkaloid being in a nascent condition in the albumose molecule. The bacillus he supposes forms the alkaloid from the albumose, while it is possible that the living tissues have a similar action when the albumose is introduced into a living animal, for subcutaneous injection of the albumoses produces the same effects as subcutaneous injection of the alkaloid, only less rapidly. If a mouse is injected with the anthrax alkaloid it becomes ill immediately, grows more and more sluggish, and finally comatose; about one two-hundredth of the body weight was found to be a fatal dose, killing in from two to three hours.