338
ABSTRACTS
rams were again the best market lambs with 89.2 per
cent being marketed. Those from Hampshire rams
followed with 87.5 per cent marketed. Lambs from
Suffolk rams, Group A, yielded carcasses slightly heavier
than those from the Hampshire rams. This order was
reversed for Group B lambs. The dressing yield was
highest, 51.6 per cent for Southdown sired lambs in
Group A and for Hampshire sired lambs, 51.3 per cent,
in Group B. Carcasses of Southdown sired lambs brought
the highest price per cwt. in New York in each group,
being $26.07 in group A and $26.37 in group B. The total
value per carcass, however, was highest in each case for
Hampshire sired lambs, viz. $10.10 in group A and
$9.13 in group B. [J. N. W.]
Preservation of bovine spermatazoa in yolk-citrate
diluent and field results from its used
SALLISBURY, FULLER AND WILLETT (1941).
Jour. Dy. Sci. 24, 905
This is a report of an attempt to develop a buffer
mixture for the preservation of bull spermatazoa which
would correspond closely with natural semen buffers and
to be used with egg yolk diluent.
Samples of semen were divided into two parts upon
collection. One part was diluted with four to five parts
of a yolk-eitrate diluent. This diluent contained approxi-
mately equal parts of M.15 sodium citrate and fresh egg
yolk and was adjusted to pH 6.75. The other part
was diluted at the same rate with the yolk-phosphate
diluent of Phillips and Lardy. Samples were cooled
to 5ºC. at the rate of 5ºC. each 10 minutes. Examina-
tions for motility were made microscopically at 37ºC.
immediately after collection and after two, four, six,
eight and ten clays storage. Stored samples were warmed
up to the temperature of examination at the rate of 10ºC.
each 10 minutes. In order to see the spermatazoa it
was necessary to further dilute the yolk-phosphate
samples; the SGC-2 diluent of Milovanov was used for
this purpose. Motility was rated to the nearest 10
per cent of activity motile spermatazoa.
By the analysis of variance treatment of the data it
was found that up to two and four days of storage there
was no significant difference in motility between the
citrate and phosphate diluents. After six and eight days,
storage, however, the citrate sample showed much greater
motility.
The coefficient of variation in pH before and
during storage were 1.12 per cent for the citrate buffer
and 0.73 per cent for the phosphate buffer. The former
is explained by the large pH variation of semen and the
low buffer capacity of the citrate at the pH used.
Field trials were made to compare the fertility of
spermatazoa stored for different periods in the two dilu-
ents. Alternate ejaculates from 2 Holstein and 3 Guern-
sey bulls were preserved in the citrate and phosphate
diluents. The two diluents gave almost comparable
results up to the fifth day after which citrate seemed to
have preserved spermatazoa fertility better than the
phosphate. This difference, however, was shown to be
insignificant when the chi-square analysis in a two by
two table was applied. [J. N. W.]
A Case of acute cutaneous glanders in man.
G. PANJA and B. C. CHATTERJEE, Indian
Medical Gazette 78, 150.
THE authors describe an acute case of cutaneous glanders
in man, the symptoms of which closely resembled those of
small-pox. The patient, who ultimately died, was ad-
mitted in the hospital as a case of small-pox, the chief
symptoms being high temperature, coated tongue, reddish
flush, eczematous lesions on the left palm, swollen and
tender lymphatics in the forearm leading from the lesion,
a big fluctuating abscess above the elbow and flaccid pus-
tular lesions without umbilication of the arms, face and
body; there was no enlargement of glands. Cultural,
serological and pathological tests confirmed the micrôs-
copical detection of Pf. mallei. No histôry as to how the
patient contracted the disease is available.
The authors observe that recorded cases of glanders in
man in India are extremely rare and the only two instances
are those of well-known veterinarians—Prof. Gaiger and
Mr Shilstin. Prof. Gaiger, who contracted the disease
at the Lahore Veterinary College, suffered from chronic
glanders of the bones and joints with acute exacerbations
for 28 months and underwent 45 operations, and Mr Shils-
ton died from acute pulmonary glanders contracted at the
Imperial Veterinary Research Institute, Mukteswar.
[S. K. S.]