The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1895-08-16
CATS AND DlPHIHERlA.
Evidence That tile Animals May Spread
Ia. Infection.

The cat is acquiring q bad reputation
IN Brighton, DR., NewahoImo, in hi.
recently issued quarterly rcport, devote,
separate section to desert tion of m
Outbreak of suspicious illness among
eats in a particular district of the town,
and to warning against keeping cats
which are suffering from certain emu.
merated symptoms. DR.. Nowsholme'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 solelyl The
laboring classes-thero had been not fed
a group of cases of tiphtheria in tha
course of single fortnight which point.
cd distinctly to the operation Of rlne
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-
ton from case to case copli not be
traced, and no sanitary detects were
found in tho affected houses. Bat in
each instance there was a history that
the household cat had been il, and in
several families the child who was rpo.
clally fond of the Cat was tie sole victim
OF diphtheria The ilhossSof the affect
ed cats had not been carefully observed
but it included one or mora of the fGl.
lowing symptoms: A bad cough, DIN
Guilty in swallowing, discharge FROM the
nose and marked emaciation, n some
OF the houses the cat had si1lDly been
observed to be wasting, and in several
instances the head of tho household vol
unteered the surmise that "the cat lad
been poisoned.
In one house, in tho center Of the af-
fected neighborhood, nine live cats were
found, and the neighhors stated that in
the previous week dead cat lay in the
yard attached to this house with dis
charge oozing from its nostrils. In an
other house mild case of iiphtheria
was attributed to the smell arising from
a cat which had died in garden ad.
joining the house. Four of the emaciat
ed cats referred to above were secured,
and necropsy, including a bacteriolog.
ical examination, was made, but with
negative results. The illness of
the cats IN question dated from at least
a month before the opportunity for ex-
amining them arose, so that the mega
tive result is not surprising.
twill be remembered that DR.. Klein,
in his investigation into cat diphtheria,
found that the diphtheria infection pro-
duced i'll the cat an acute lung inflam-
nation, the kidneys becoming degener-
ated In the manner known in man as
the large white kidney" The oondi-
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 we'll 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 emulation in the throat,
but only marked pneumonia, and pos
'tbly also renal Inflammation. The pub
lie warning given in Brighton as to cats
mas had the 1esired effect, the small
having come to an abrupt ter
nination with the destruction of sus-
oected cats and of many others whose
,areer has been shortened in consequence
If the publicity given to the facts of the
'ase. British Medical Journal.