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anti-toxic and germicidal substances present In the blood or other fluids of the body act.

But Metchnikoff's theory never pretended to explain the chemistry of intra-cellular digestion. It merely affirmed that in the multi­cellular animals the duty of defending the organism against the flttacks of bacteria is assigned to special cells, and, notwithstanding all the adverse criticism that has been directed against, it still stands practically unshaken.

FERN POISONING.

DURING the summer of 1893 a considerable number of veterinary surgeons in this country had experience of what appeared to be a new disease of cattle. In respect of symptoms and fatality it bore some resemblance to anthrax, and in some cases it was mistaken for that disease. Under the heading " Vegetable Poisoning," outbreaks of it were described by Professor Penberthy and Mr Storrar in the Journal for September last, and in the same issue Mr Fr~eman gave his experience of what was obviously the same disease.

In a considerable number of cases the owner of the cattle had a suspicion that the illness was ascribable to the eating of bracken, which the animals had been driven to consume freely owing to bareness of pasture consequent upon the long drought. But it appeared difficult to believe that poisonous properties could so long have been overlooked in such a widely distributed plant as the common fern, and the one experiment which Professor Penberthy made in order to test the effect of feeding with bracken had a negative result.

During the past few months Mr Nicholson Almond has brought under our notice a case which, when taken along with previous evidence pointing in the same direction, leaves little doubt that the common bracken, if eaten in considerable quantity, is capable of producing very serious effects on cattle. In this instance a lot of animals were at first given brackens chopped up with straw, and when they had thus been induced to eat the bracken the straw was gradu­ally withdrawn, until the diet was composed exclusively of bracken and turnips. This was soon followed by the death of three of the animals and the serious illness of the others. The jJost-mortem exami­nation of the animals that succumbed revealed a state of things in close agreement with what was noted by Professor Penberthy and Messrs Storrar and Freeman in the cases that came under their notice among cattle at grass during the summer months, viz., the presence of large and numerous patches of blood extravasation under the peri-

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toneum and pleura. A most notable symptom during life was high temperature, in some cases up to 108° F., and this in animals that continued to ruminate and lick themselves as if in health.

It has already been said that in some instances cases of the kind here referred to were mistaken for anthrax, and there is good ground for believing that at least one large herd in which a few cases of fern poisoning occurred last summer was slaughtered in order to prevent the spread of the disease. It must be admitted that both in respect of symptoms and lesions cases of fern poisoning to some extent simulate cases of anthrax, but the points of difference are sufficiently pronounced to make it an easy matter to distinguish between the two conditions.

In the first place, a bacteriological examination of the fresh blood or spleen pulp in animals dead of anthrax never fails to show large numbers of anthrax bacilli, but in cases of fern poisoning the fresh fluids and tissues of the body show no bacteria of any kind.

In cases of fern poisoning the spleen is always normal in appearance, while in anthrax that organ is seldom or never quite normal, and is generally decidedly enlarged and softened.

In cases of fern poisoning one of the most conspicuous lesions is subpleural and subperitoneal ha:morrhage. In anthrax, also, ecchy­moses are sometimes present in these situations, but there they are seldom so large or so numerous as they generally are in fern poisoning.

Another almost constant condition found in animals dead from fern poisoning is the presence of large quantities of blood, sometimes almost pure and firmly clotted, in the large bowel. In anthrax, as is well known, a ha:morrhagic enteritis is of very common occurrence, but large clots of blood in the colon or rectum are seldom or never found in that disease.

Anyone acquainted with the differences above enumerated is not likely to have any difficulty in. distinguishing between anthrax and fern poisoning when an opportunity to make a post-mortem examina­tion is afforded, but even during life mistakes may generally be avoided by taking note of the following distinctions. In both conditions the temperature is generally distinctly febrile, but on an average it is decidedly higher in fern poisoning. For example, in the eight cases of poisoning recorded by Mr Storrar the lowest temperature noted was 106'8°, and the highest 108'4°. The course of the disease is decidedly more acute in anthrax, for whereas in natural cases of that disease the animals are often found dead without having been observed ill, or die within a few hours after they are noticed to be ailing, in fern poisoning the animals generally linger for a few days after the onset of the first symptoms. An abundant discharge of blood from the nose or rectum was present in many of the recorded cases of fern poisoning, and that is certainly not a common symptom

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of anthrax in cattle. Finally, it appears that, even when cattle, sheep, and horses were being pastured together, cases of fern poisoning were observed in cattle only, but, as everyone knows, no such rule is observed in outbreaks of anthrax.

AN UNRECOGNISED ADVANTAGE OF PUBLIC SLAUGHTER-HOUSES.

THAT the abolition of private slaughter-houses and the introduction of a general system of meat inspection conducted in public abattoirs would be advantageous to the whole community, by excluding from the market a large amount of unwholesome food, has long ago been admitted, but it has not been recognised that such changes would confer any boon on those who fatten ~imals for the butcher. A veterinary surgeon practising in Scotland, in a communication recently addressed to us, calls attention to one respect in which the absence of any control of the meat trade sometimes operates to the disad­vantage of the farmer.

This correspondent states that in the case of animals slaughtered in any village slaughter-house in Aberdeenshire, the first inspection of the carcases is made, or supposed to be made, at Aberdeen, in the waggons or goods sheds before the carcases are sent off by rail to Glasgow or by steamer to London. This inspection is said to be of a quite perfunctory character, for the carcases are wrappf"d up in sheets, and it is only in the case of suspicious looking can ses that these sheets are ripped open. It is stated that at certain times, owing to the large number of carcases passing through, and the inadequacy of the staff, it would be quite impossible to inspect every carcase. The carcases which are regarded as suspicious are those that give evidence of leanness; but our correspondent asserts that it is no uncommon thing for tuberculous carcases from which the pleura has been stripped off to be passed without any proper inspection, because in their wrappings they appear large and well nourished.

It is further said that in at least one case there is only a single slaughter-house-a private one-for seven parishes, and hence the practice is to have animals killed at the farm, the dead animals being then removed in a cart or float to the nearest slaughter-house, where they are dressed by the butcher. Should any defect or disease be detected in the carcase by the butcher, it is used, irrespective of its bearing on the fitness of the flesh for food, as a means of frightening the owner and depreciating the carcase, with the result that the butcher gets the animal for whatever he likes to offer for it, promptly consigns it to Glasgow, Dundee, or London, and generally realises a handsome profit on the transaction.

It is quite possible that the erection of public slaughter-houses, with