The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1895-08-02
CATS AND DlPHTHERlA.
Evidence That the Animals May Spread
the Infection.

The cat is acquiring a bad reputation
in Brighton. DR.. Newsholme, in his
recently issued quarterly report, devotes
q separate section to description Of an
outbreak of suspicious illness among
cats in particular district Of the town,
and to warning against keeping cats
which are suffering from certain emu
merated symptoms. DR.. Newsholme's
attention was called to cats by the fact
! that in the neighborhood between Elm
grove and Southover street--a part of
Brighton inhabited almost solely by the
laboring classes-there had been notified
a group of cases of diphtheria in the
course of single fortnight which point
ed distinctly to the operation of some
local cause.
The patients comprised both children
and adults. They did not attend any
particular school; there was no COM
munity Of milk supply; personal infec-
tion from case to case could not be
traced, and no sanitary defects were
found in the affected houses. But in
each instance there was history that
the household cat had been i'll, and in
several families the child who was spe-
cially fond of the cat was the sole victim
of diphtheria. The illness of the affect
ed cats had not been carefully observed,
but it included one or more of the fol-
lowing symptoms A bad cough, diff
Guilty in swallowing, discharge from the
nose 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 vol
unteered the surmise that "the cat had
been poisoned "
In one house, in the center of the af
fected neighborhood, nine live cats were
found, and the neighbors stated that in
the previous week dead cat lay in the
yard attached to this house with dis
charge oozing from it's nostrils. In an
other house mild case of diphtheria
was attributed to the smell arising from
a cat which had died in a garden adj
joining the house. -Four of the emaciat-
ed cats referred to above were secured,
ulu hCSlOpoJ, lhSluulhS % DeouOA'oiOS
ical 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-
aiming them arose, so that the mega
tive result is not surprising.
1t will be remembered that DR.. Klein,
in his investigation into cat diphtheria,
found that the diphtheria infection pro-
dused in the cat an acute lung infam
nation, the kidneys becoming degener
ated in the manner known in man as
the Large white kidney" The condi-
ton of the household cat is worthy Of |
inquiry in all such local outbreaks as
the one briefly described by DR.. News
holme, and it may be well to remem-
Der that if the cat can be secured for
anatomical examination, even in the
acute stage of the disease, there will
probably be no oxidation in the throat,
but only marked pneumonia, and pos
sibly also renal inflammation The pub
lie warning given in Brighton as to cats
has had the desired effect, the small
having come to an abrupt ter
mination with the destruction of sus-
pected cats and of many others whose
career has been shortened in consequence
Of the publicity given to the facts of the
case. British Medical Journal