Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-07-20
CATS AND DIPHTHERIA.
Evidence That the Animals May
Spread the Infection.

Evidence That the Animals May
Spread the Infection.
From the British Medical Journal.
The cat is acquiring bad reputation IN
Brighton. DR.. Newsholme, In his recently
issued quarterly report, devotes separate
section to description Of an outbreak OF
suspicious illness among cats in particu-
lar district of the town, and to a warning
against keeping cats which are suffering
from certain enumerated symptoms. DR..
Newsholme's attention was called to cats
by the fact that in the neighborhood be-
tween Elm Grove and Southover street-a
part of Brighton inhabited almost solely by
the laboring classes-there had been nott-
fed group of cases Of diphtherta in the
course of single fortnight, which pointed
distinctly to the operation of some local
cause.
The patients comprised both children and
adults. They did not attend any particu-
lar school; there was no community OF
milk supply; personal infection from case
to case could not be traced, and no sani-
tary defects were found in the affected
houses. But in each instance there was
history that the household cat mad been
ILL., and in several families the child who
was specially fond of the cat was the sole
victim of diphtheria. The illness of the at
fected cats had not been carefully OBJ
served. but 1t included one or more OF the
following symptoms: A bad cough difhc ulty
IN SWALLOWING, QlScHdFSe from tne HoSe'
and marked emaciation. In some of the
houses the cat had simply been observed
to be wasting, and in several instances
the head of the household volunteered the
surmise that 1.-THE cat had been poisoned"
In one house, the center Of the affected
neighborhood, ntne live cats were found,
and the neighbors stated that in the pre-
vious week dead cat lay in the yard at
tached to this house, with discharge ooz-
ing from it's nostrils. In another house a
mild case of diphtheria was attributed to
the smell arising from the cat, which had
died in a garden adjoining the house. Four
Of the emaciated cats referred to above
were secured, and necropsy, including a
meteorological examination, was made. but
with entirely negative results. The illness
of the cats IN question dated from at least
a month before the opportunity for ex-
amning them arose, so that the negative
result is not surprising.
1t will be remembered that DR.. Klein, in
his investigation into cat diphtheria, found
that the diphtheria infection produced In
the cat an acute lung Inflammation, the
kidneys becoming degenerated in the man.
ner known in man as the large white kid
ney.' The condition of the household cat
Is worthy of inquiry in all such local out
breaks as the one briefly described by DR..
Newsholme, and it may be well to remem-
Der that if the cat can be secured for ana
tomfcal examination, even in the acute
stage of the disease, there will probably
be no exudat;on in the throat, but only
marked pneumonia, and possibly also renal
Inflammation. The public warning given
in Brighton to cats has had the desired
effect, the small outbreak having come to
an abrupt termination with the destruction
of suspected cats. and of manv others
whose career has been shortened in con-
sequence Of the publicity given to the facts
of the case.