EDITORIAL ARTICLES.

It must not be assumed that in the foregoing remarks I have, for one moment, had in view the minimising of the importance of the observa­tions of Jelkman, Moller, and Malkmus; on the contrary, I consider that their contributions to the literature of colic mal positions are extremely interesting and suggestive.

E D ITO R I A L ART I C L E S. --0--

SWINE ERYSIPELAS.

IT may be in the recollection of readers of the Journal that we have already called attention to the existence of this disease in Great Britain, and pointed out the necessity of practitioners being on their guard against confounding it with swine fever. Information that has recently come to our knowledge strengthens the belief that the disease has already a wide distribution in this country, and we therefore need make no apology for returning to the subject.

In an article which appeared in the Journal for December 1891, we published notes of three cases which occurred in widely remote parts of England. In two of these instances the absolute proof that the disease was identical with the French rouge! and the German rotltlauf was furnished, the characteristic bacillus of the disease having been cultivated in a state of purity from the lesions present in the heart. In the third case also there was hardly any room for doubt regarding the nature of the disease, inasmuch as bacilli agreeing- with those of yotltlauf were demonstrable in great numbers in the same situation. In last number Dr Murray and Mr Stevenson pointed out that in 1890 they had described in the VeterillalY Record three cases of endo­carditis in the pig, which occurred in the neighbourhood of Newcastle, and in which the characteristic fine bacilli were found in the cardiac vegetations.

These cases were of themselves sufficient to excite suspicion that the disease was by no means rare among British pigs, but it appeared strange that in none of them was there any evidence that it had prevailed \'lith the epizootic characters habitual to it on the Continent. This was all the more remarkable owing to the fact that in both France and Germany it had been noticed that pure-bred English pigs or those crossed with English blood were most susceptible to the disease. But it will be seen from what follows that the disease is epizootic with us also.

In the month of April last we had sent to us by Mr Macgregor of Stranraer the entire carcase of a pig, with the history that it was one of a lot bought by Mr A. from a dealer, who had purchased them in the north of Ireland. A day or two after their arrival at Mr A.'s farm

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EDITORIAL ARTICLES.

some of them were observed to be ailing, and one had already died when Mr Macgregor was called in. The symptoms noticed were "stiffness of the limbs, the presence of large 'blotches and discoloured areas on the skin, constipation, and a febrile temperature." Three more deaths occurred within the next three days, and the owner then slaughtered IS of the lot that appeared to be still un attacked.

The lesions noted in the carcase sent to the Veterinary College were as follows: The skin on the inside of the thighs and the under surface of the body from the pubis to the sternum showed a diffuse livid discoloration, unattended by any very distinct swelling. The spleen was somewhat enlarged, and less firm than normal. The gastric mucous membrane was acutely inflamed, with patches of bright vas­cular infection. The intestine was free from ulceration, but at some points congested. The liver was congested; the kidneys appeared normal. Pleura and lungs normal. The pericardium contained a quantity of turbid fluid, and the serous membrane of the same was covered with a thin fibrinous layer. Endocardium and valves of the heart normal.

Cover-glass preparations made from the spleen pulp and stained with aqueous solution of methylene blue showed immediately a con­siderable number of slender bacilli resembling those of swine ery­sipelas. Cultures in gelatine made from the heart blood yielded the characteristic colonies of the rotlzlazifbacillus, unmixed with any other organism.

After this outbreak it cannot be doubted that swine erysipelas in its ordinary acute and fatal form exists in this country; and if we assume that the pigs in the above instance brought the infection with them from Ireland, the occurrence of the disease has now been proved for each of the three kingdoms.

It is too early to speculate regarding the extent to which the disease prevails among British pigs, but judging from the generally epizootic character exhibited by it in other countries, there is strong reason to believe that outbreaks of it cannot be rare here. The question then arises, under what name is it diagnosed? It is, of course, not impossible that the disease is of recent introduction, and that it is not yet very prevalent; and it might be surmised that it had been imported from Denmark, in which country it is rather common. Against such a conjecture, however, there stands the fact that the disease has now been met with in widely remote parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland; and it is much more probable that the disease is only now attracting attention because cases of it have hitherto been confounded with swine fever. There is little cause for regret if such has been the case in the past, for swine erysipelas undoubtedly deserves to have applied against it such measures of repression as are prescribed by law against swine fever. But it is worthy of note that while in the outbreak already referred to Mr Macgregor was in doubt regarding

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the true nature of the disease, he was satisfied that it was not swine fever; and now that attention has been called to the subject, it is to be expected that practitioners will have little difficulty in diagnosing the disease when they encounter it.

Unfortunately, as the law at present stands it is almost desirable that the two diseases-swine fever and swine erysipelas-should con­tinue to be confounded, for when the latter is correctly diagnosed local authorities have no power to deal with it under the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act. It would, however, be absurd to ask veteri­nary surgeons when they meet with outbreaks of swine erysipelas to name them swine fever in order to bring them under the operation of the before-mentioned Act. A more rational plan would be for the Board of Agriculture to issue an order bringing swine erysipelas under the Act, and ordaining that outbreaks of that disease should be com­bated by the measures applicable to swine fever. With the object of aiding practitioners in distinguishing between the two diseases, we give at a later page an excellent description of the symptoms and lesions of swine erysipelas which recently appeared in a French contemporary.

THE OPERATIVE TREATMENT OF ROARING.

AN almost absolute silence has fallen on the discussion of this subject in the professional journals-a silence that is in marked contrast to the heated controversies that were waged regarding the surgical treat­ment of the condition three years ago. At that time the veterinary profession was on the tip-toe of expectation, excited by the rumour that Dr Fleming had devised an operation by which roaring could be absolutely cured; When Dr Fleming at length took the profession into his confidence, and explained that this operation consisted in removing the vocal cord on the paralysed side, it was immediately pointed out to him that that was not a new operation, and that it had already been proved ineffectual. About the same time Professor Moller of Berlin published his monograph on roaring, in which he recommended resection of the left arytenoid cartilage. This also may be said to have been a revival of an old operation, for it had been previously tried by Gunther; but whereas in the hands of the latter the operation had proved worse than useless-the horses dying from pneumonia caused by the entrance of food or water through the glottis, Moller claimed to have obtained gratifying results by employ­ing a tampon tracheotomy tube to prevent the passage of foreign matters into the trachea. At the date of his monograph Moller claimed that no fewer than 22 out of 30 horses operated upon had been cured, and that in 5 others the operation had been partially successful.

Within a short time after the publication of Moller's article his