our human population. Many diseases are communicable from the animal to the human species, and the only way in which these conditions can be met is to properly deal with such diseases in the lower animals. Further, the complexity and technicality of the problems which these ailments present for solution make it imperative that in order to deal with them a man must have the most liberal scientific education.

Public health organizations everywhere are realizing that collaboration between the practitioner of human medicine and the veterinarian is the most direct way to the determination of methods for prevention of many diseases; consequently, we find members of these two professions working side by side, each recognizing the essentiality of the other.

Every State owes its people some legislation leading to the gradual elimination of incompetent veterinarians and the placing of veterinary medicine and sanitation in the care of qualified graduate veterinarians.

SURGEON-Major Semple, attached to the Army Medical School at Netley, England, recently scratched his hand with a hypodermic needle when immunizing a horse for the preparation of serum against Malta fever. Shortly after this he developed the symptoms of the fever, and his blood when examined gave a typical reaction of the micrococcus of Malta fever when diluted 1-1000. As an act of poetic justice, the horse which he was immunizing has been bled, and has supplied two injections of its serum into the immunizer. The patient is responding to the treatment and gives promise of speedy recover.-Medical News.

A Bandera County, Texas, stock-raiser is the owner of a mare mule with a sucking colt.

The well-known Chestnut Hill Stock-farm of Mr. Mitchell Harrison, near Philadelphia, met with the great loss by fire of all its barns and sheddings for horses, early in November. Fortunately all the live-stock were saved, including the great hackney stallion Wildfire, with many of his get. Mr. Harrison will at once rebuild, and will construct the most complete sanitary buildings possible, in order that the best system of light, ventilation, and drainage may be secured. Mr. Harrison has retained the services of Prof. Leonard Pearson, whose experience and advice will be utilized in preparing the plans and completing the construction of the building.

ABSTRACTS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS.

GERMAN.

UNDER THE DIRECTION OF J. PRESTON HOSKINS, PH.D.,

PRINCETON, N. J.

ATTEMPT TO EXTERMINATE MICE BY MEANS OF THE SHREWMOUSE BACILLUS. By S. S. Mereshkowsky, St. Petersburg.Out of four kegs of barley-meal and two litres of liquid culture, Mereshkowsky made a dough, out of which 2000 little lumps were prepared. The culture of the shrew-mouse bacillus was developed for three days at a temperature of 35.5° C. These little lumps were devoured as greedily by the mice as wheat or corn.

During the harvest, while the grain was standing in shocks in the field, Mereshkowsky placed eight lumps in each shock. Two days later all these lumps had disappeared. Three days later the 250 shocks were opened, all the dead mice collected and all the live ones caught. A bacteriological examination gave the following result:

The percentage of dead animals was, in the case of field mice, 32 per cent.; house-mice, 29 per cent. ; and wood-mice, 42 per cent. II. On a second trial only four little lumps were put into sixtytwo shocks, with the following result:

Some seventy-five of these experiments were made, and the per cent. of infected mice steadily decreased, especially that of the house-mice, which sunk from 94 per cent. to 43 per cent. This fact was explained by the circumstance that the owner of the farm had ten dogs which received no regular feed and lived chiefly upon mice. This was confirmed by the fact that no dead mice were found on the outside of the shocks.

Mereshkowsky found that a second infection with the lumps should not be made until the end of twelve days, as it cannot be determined before that period whether all the infected mice have died. The bacillus has the same destructive effect upon rats, as was shown by examination, and the virus was often transmitted to the young, supposedly through the skin of the ovaries. Mereshkowsky comes to the conclusion that the bacillus taken from the shrew-mouse can be used for the extermination of the mouse-pest, yet the results will not be so rapid, because the number that can be infected is small compared with the whole number. It would, therefore, be advisable to infect all the places: fields, barns, cellars, etc., which are infested with mice.-Deutsche Thierärzt Wochenschrift, Jan. 30, 1897.

REGULATIONS AGAINST CATTLE-TUBERCULOSIS IN SWITZERLAND. On July 24, 1896, the Bundesrath decided to introduce tuberculin as a diagnostic means of exterminating tuberculosis. Further regulations relating to the same have lately been enacted. Tuberculin is to be distributed to the canton authorities free of charge. In order to guard against injurious changes in the tuberculin itself the orders for it must be commensurate with the actual need, and not sent in too long beforehand. The tuberculin is delivered ready for use in doses of three, four, and five cubic centimetres. In the orders it must be expressly stated how many doses of each kind are desired.

On the part of the cauton authorities the tuberculin is to be given only to qualified veterinarians, the latter being authorized to administer the same and to report as to the results obtained.

As soon as a cattle-owner desires inspection for his cattle, the same must be applied not to individual animals, but to all cattle over six months old that the farmer possesses. Every animal that in consequence of tuberculin injection shows a rise in temperature of 1.5° or over is to be declared tuberculous, and to be marked by a triangle on the tip of the right ear. Tongs for this purpose are furnished by the Agricultural Department.

The costs of this tuberculin vaccination is to be met by the various governments.

It is encouraging that the use of tuberculin as a diagnostic is being consistently developed in Switzerland. In Germany its use is still confined to certain commercial centres where large importations of cattle are received from abroad.-Idem., Feb. 6, 1897.

EXTRAORDINARY LARGE NUMRER OF "CYSTICERCUS Bovis " IN A CALF LUNG.-As cysticercus bovis usually does not occur in large numbers, the present case is of especial interest. Everywhere on the lungs bright coffee-brown specks were visible, the centres of which were transparent and raised a little, and which showed a diameter of four millimetres. The microscopical examination showed that it was a case of cysticercus bovis. These parasites were found in the other organs, as follows: Heart, 7. In the liver a countless number beneath the serous coating of the front surface. On the tongue, 2. On the masseter, 3. On the muscles common to the head, neck, and arm, 1. On the lower shouldermuscle, 3. Internal oblique abdominal muscle, 2. On the muscles of the thigh, a few. The diaphragm, spleen, kidneys, abdominal wall, and brain were free.-Idem.

Bleeding with THE HOLLOW NEEDLE.-By M. Casper. In No. 13 of the Berliner Thierarztliche Wochenschrift, Professor Dieckerhoff describes a new process of bleeding in a manner which leaves the impression that this method is his discovery. For the protection of personal interests, and to state clearly the point at issue, I feel compelled to make the following reply: Already, since the year 1891, in procuring blood for the purpose of the serum at the Berlin Pathological Institute, I have conducted the blood out, in the case of larger and smaller animals, by means of a small hollow tube (canulus), which Hauptner made according to my instructions. The hollow needle used by Dieckerhoff differs from this only very slightly and very unessentially. My method was very soon adopted in Koch's Institute for Infectious Diseases.

At a meeting of the Kurhessiun Veterinarians I gave the following description of the same: I have the neck below the point of puncture compressed with a cord, then I cleanse the skin thoroughly with alcohol, and always keep the hollow needle or canulus in absolute alcohol. Then I stick the needle with a powerful thrust into the vein. The blood comes out in a bow-shaped stream, but cannot come in contact with the hand; from behind I draw out the needle while holding back the skin with two fingers of the left hand, and bleeding ceases almost immediately. In this manner I have let blood more than a thousand times without having had a single unfortunate result. I have also at times punctured the carotid, which can be easily recognized in the bright red color of the blood and through the pulsations in the stream itself.

In this case a large and hard swelling follows, but without injurious consequences, disappearing after a few days.

I can recommend this method with a good conscience to my colleagues. It can easily be performed, and looks more elegant and less cruel than bleeding with the lancet. In the case of cattle it is not so good, because the skin is so thick and the needle is hard. to stick in.

In September, 1896, I showed this method to twenty colleagues, among them Prof. Dieckerhoff, who seemed much pleased. But in my innocence I did not suppose that he would afterward take occasion to describe the same as his discovery, without even mentioning my name.-Deutsche Thierarzt. Wochenschrift, April 10, 1897.

EXTIRPATION OF SPLENIC FEVER BY AGRICULTURAL REGULATIONS.. BY LYDTIN.-It is always encouraging to hear the veterinarian praised on the part of agricultural associations. For this reason the report which comes from the last session of the Agricultural Council for Alsace-Lorraine is of great interest. By doing away with the open pasturing of cattle splenic fever in the community of Illhausern has been very nearly suppressed. Formerly wild animals helped to spread the disease, and especially the carcass itself, which was only covered with dirt and often came to lie in surface-water; likewise flies and midgets carried the germs of the disease from such decaying carcasses. The district veterinarian Schield, of Rappoltsweiler, therefore deserves great credit for suppressing splenic fever by doing away with open pasturing in spite of popular opposition and of heavy immediate loss to his profession. His service, however, is to-day generally recognized, and he has saved the Government much money. We congratulate him on this event.-Idem.

SELECTIONS.

MILK A VEHICLE FOR MICROBES; NEEDED LEGISLATION.— The number of deaths caused annually by diseased milk and milkcontamination is sufficiently great to warrant legislative interference. The following points should be noted:

1. The need for setting up some authority, central or county, having in its charge the dairy farms and milk-shops of the country