Disease In Great Britain Research Articles

A Tribute to Sir John McFadyean

IT was a happy thought that prompted some of his colleagues to obtain Sir John McFadyean's consent to allow them to design and edit the December (1937) number of the Journal of Comparative Pathology and Therapeutics as a jubilee number and Festschrift. This number forms the conclusion of the fiftieth volume of the journal, which was founded by Sir John McFadyean in 1888, and has since been edited by him almost entirely single-handed, and this unique occasion has been utilized to issue this number as a Festschrift in honour of Sir John's outstanding contributions to veterinary science during his long career. These have been mainly confined to problems concerning the control of tuberculosis, contagious abortion and glanders among farm animals, the etiology and occurrence of Johne's disease in Great Britain, and the discovery that the virus of horse sickness is a filterable one. The esteem in which Sir John is held is manifest from the contributions contained in this number, which come from all parts of the world. Appreciations of the man and his work are contributed by many, including Sir John Kelland of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries ; Sir Robert Muir ; Sir John Ledingham ; Prof, von Ostertag, Tübingen ; Dr. Schmaltz, Berlin ; Prof. Leclainche, Paris ; Dr. Mohler, United States ; and Dr. Hilton, Canada. o Several excellent portraits of Sir John are reproduced.

Carriers of Foot-and-Mouth Disease

THE highly sporadic character of the occurrences of foot-and-mouth disease in Great Britain and its apparently repeated importation from the Continent have naturally caused much speculation about possible vectors, though the special difficulties of the case have prevented the direct demonstration of carriage.

Spike Disease in Sandal

SANDAL has long been a valuable forestry product in southern India and the mysterious disease termed ‘spike’ has been the subject of investigation during the past quarter of a century. Various bodies interested in sandal are collaborating, such as the Madras Forest Department, the Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore, the Forest Research Institute at Dehra Dun and others. A report on the progress made during the half-year ending September 30, 1932, entitled “Investigations on the Spike-Disease of Sandal” has been issued by the Institute of Science, Bangalore. The sporadic attacks of this pest have a strange parallel to those of foot and mouth disease in Great Britain. A recrudescence of the disease in an epidemic form has been noticed in the Beedamaruthupatti spike area. Pollarding, which has been carried out on a fairly large scale in the Galigattam and Manchi areas, has yielded significant data. So far, Manchi has the maximum percentage of disease-masking sandal plants. The entire freedom from infection of a few areas, Sanamavu and Thalli in North Salem and Chickabettakere in Coorg, has been established by pollarding. More detailed technical contributions will appear as scientific papers in the Journal of the Indian Institute of Science, Dehra Dun Forest Research Publications, and elsewhere. Meanwhile it is a valuable departure to issue progress reports so that the various investigators studying the pest, which causes so heavy a financial loss, should have early news of any results achieved.

Foot-and-Mouth Disease

THE ravages of foot-and-mouth disease in Great Britain during the past few years, though now, happily, declining, yet lend great importance to the discovery of methods of prevention and cure less drastic than the slaughter of all affected animals. Although in its second progress report,1 the Foot-andMouth Disease Research Committee is unable to prescribe certain means of prevention and cure, the results already achieved suggest that in the future such may be discovered; thus the experiments described on methods of destroying the virus and on immunity to it in animals point the way to possible means by which these ends may be successfully accomplished.

Experiments on foot-and-mouth disease

By cross-immunisation experiments in cattle, sheep, pigs, and guinea-pigs, Vallee's conclusions as to the existence in nature of two distinct varieties or types (A and O) of foot-and-mouth virus have been confirmed. A few cases of accidental transmission of the disease among cattle served to emphasise the distinction. The irregular results of some of the experiments cannot be held to invalidate the correctness of these conclusions. Of seventeen strains received during the past two years from twelve centres of disease in Great Britain, only one was found to conform to the A type, the remainder being indistinguishable from the O type. The characters of two of the British strains (V, 6 and V. 13) from cattle were found to be relatively fixed. At any rate, four passages through susceptible species of farm animals (sheep and pigs) other than that from which they originated failed to produce any noticeable modification. The opportunity has been taken to study the clinical course of the experimental disease in cattle, sheep, and pigs. Guinea-pigs kept in close contact with cattle suffering from foot-and-mouth disease failed to acquire the infection. Further, in one instance only was the infection observed to pass from infected guinea-pigs to cattle, and i n this instance the guinea-pigs' vesicles were intentionally ruptured. It is therefore extremely unlikely that less susceptible rodents, such as rats, can act as pathological carriers in nature.

Leprosy as an endemic disease in Great Britain

Leprosy as an endemic disease in Great Britain

Reviews of Books : "The Geographical Distribution of Disease in Great Britain."

Reviews of Books : "The Geographical Distribution of Disease in Great Britain."

The geographical distribution of disease in Great Britain

The geographical distribution of disease in Great Britain

State of Epidemic Disease in Great Britain in 1861–ʼ62

State of Epidemic Disease in Great Britain in 1861–ʼ62