There are several important questions concerning the disease yet to be answered. Among them are:

Will the treatment prescribed for hookworm disease in the human, i. e., thymol, followed by a purgative dose of salts, free the animal of the worms? A few verbal reports of the success of the treatment as outlined in the above bullentin, using thymol, indicate that the treatment was successful.

Is the so-called cow-itch which people get from the cow-pen an infestation with the larval stage of the cow, or human hookworm? If cow-itch in people is due to infestation with the larval stage of the cow hookworm, does the cow-itch mean any more than a mere local skin disease, and does the invading larva ultimately perish in the human tissues?

May not cow-itch be another name for ground-itch, in which the invasive larva is really of the human species, and not the bovine species at all?

These are difficult questions to answer, but time and effort may throw some light upon them and answers may, in time, be forthcoming.

DISEASES OF DOGS

There are many valuable dogs in Florida, and a report of this kind would be incomplete if it failed to record the existence of two very important diseases in dogs.

RABIES

Rabies, which seems to be on the increase everywhere, is the most important canine disease, because of its communicability to man. It is the only disease, in the writer's estimation, that the state is entirely responsible for, because it is the one that can be legislated out of existence. A law imposing a high license upon dogs would soon rid the country of the many superfluous, ownerless curs which are the ones largely responsible for the spread of this horrible disease. A law-abiding citizen may reasonably claim the right of going back and forth on the streets of a city, or public roads in the country, without being in danger of assassination by a highwayman, or, what is just about as bad, being bitten by a mad dog. A dog should only be allowed to live because it is a useful animal to its owner. How many persons would house and feed a perfectly useless horse indefinitely? And yet all horses have more than earned all they ever got from their owners. Even if rabies

were a disease of animals only, there are enough animals that succumb to rabies every year to warrant drastic legislation against the ownerless dog. The fact that the State Board of Health furnishes a perfect preventive treatment against the development of rabies in the human should in no way moderate the stand which should be taken against the conditions which allow this disease to exist.

BLACK TONGUE

Black tongue in dogs is generally a fatal disease and one about which little seems to be known. The writer has found it uniformly fatal in his own experience. Pathologically, it is a gangrenous stomatitis, and it may be identical in its etiology with the disease of calves and pigs described by Mohler and Morse in Bulletin No. 67 of the Bureau of Animal Industry, under the title "Necrobic Stomatitis"; with the "Foot-rot of Sheep" by Mohler and Washburn, of the same Bureau; and of "Lip-and-Leg Ulceration of Sheep" by Mohler. The above investigators have found these three diseases to have a common causative agent, the Bacillus necrophorus.

Respectfully submitted,
CHAS. F. DAWSON,

Veterinarian.

:

REPORT OF J. W. DEMILLY, ASS'T VETERINARIAN

TALLAHASSEE, FLA., January 1, 1912.

Dr. Joseph Y. Porter, State Health Officer, Jacksonville, Fla.

DEAR DOCTOR: I respectfully submit herewith a report of my work as veterinarian for the period ending December 31st. 1911. My appointment was received October 17th, 1911.

DETAILS AND WORK ACCOMPLISHED IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF
HOG CHOLERA SERUM

It will be seen by the above report that the epidemic of hog cholera is by no means confined to any special locality, but is rather a general epizootic. It is impossible to get at the mortality of the disease, but I am safe in saying that in the hog-raising sections. of Lafayette and Taylor counties the death rate has been enormous, running up in the hundreds. These heavy losses were in range cattle, where, under existing conditions, it was impossible to administer the serum. If in these sections the owners of hogs will work together and in co-operation with the veterinarian in charge, there is no reason why, in time, the disease could not be eradicated. Respectfully submitted,

J. W. DEMILLY, Assistant Veterinarian.

REPORTS FROM COUNTY AGENTS

ALACHUA COUNTY

J. Harrison Hodges, M. D., Agent

Hookworm Disease.—Undoubtedly many hundreds of cases of this disease have been treated in the county during the past year. Many schools have been inspected voluntarily by the physicians, and advice or treatment given in suspected or known cases of the disease. I should say that the campaign for the eradication of this disease is making satisfactory headway in this county.

Tuberculosis.—In recent years we see very few cases of the disease. Sufferers from tuberculosis find it exceedingly difficult to find accommodations here. The hotels and boarding houses naturally object to having tubercular patients among their guests, and the one sanitarium we have excludes them. These sufferers, therefore, seek elsewhere for the climatic advantages which they desire. Most people are now alert to the dangers of the spread of the disease by careless sufferers and do not encourage them to linger in the community.

Smallpox.-We have had a few cases of smallpox in the county during the year. For the most part the people are alive to the need of universal vaccination and the disease has not assumed any alarming proportions. The negroes are most often attacked, but some cases have occurred in white families. Members of the Alachua County Medical Society vaccinate all public school children free when parents are willing to accept this service. In this manner a large proportion of the public school children have been protected.

Typhoid Fever.-The filthy little fly is now recognized generally by our people as an active and deadly foe because of the easy and rapid manner in which it may spread the germs of this disease. Screening against this pest and other methods for the control of the same are becoming more general. Gainesville requires by ordinance the screening of meats and other foods when exposed for sale. Several arrests and convictions have already been had under this ordinance. The agent of the State Board of Health was among the first in the county to administer the anti-typhoid vaccine to himself and has administered it to a number of others, especially nurses and those more or less exposed to the disease.

Sewage Disposal.-Gainesville is the only city in the county so far having a complete system of sewage disposal. The system in this city gives perfect satisfaction and undoubtedly makes for better health.

Pellagra.-Only three or four deaths have occurred from this disease during the year.

Diphtheria, Measles, Scarlet Fever, etc.-These disease have only prevailed to the extent of a few sporadic cases.

Florida Health Notes, the official bulletin of the State Board of Health, is read by a considerable number of people and is a valuable educational factor in sanitary and public health matters.

BAKER COUNTY*

Dr. J. Frank Curtis, M. D., Agent

Health in Baker County during the year 1911 has been fairly good. There were only a few cases of typhoid fever. Fevers seem to approach most closely to the malarial types, while some cases were of a bilious nature, being remittent and from five to fifteen days in duration.

Have seen or heard of no chickenpox and but one case of smallpox during the year, although there were some cases of smallpox across the state line at Moniac, Georgia.

There were three dogs killed at different times, which were thought to have rabies; one at Griffing Brothers' Nursery, upon analysis by the State Board of Health, showed positive rabies. These dogs bit many other dogs and, so far as learned, one white child and one colored one was bitten. Pasteur treatment was ordered for both and complete treatment was administered to the white child and treatment commenced on the colored one, but after the first two doses were administered, the patient failed to appear for the remainder of the treatment. Upon inquiry it appeared that a visiting doctor, as the patient and others said, had told patient that he "had no hydrophobia; that he would turn green around the eyes" if he had, and in a way discouraged his taking further treatment. Fortunately, the above type of M. D. does not rank with the high-class ethical gentlemen who compose the majority of professional brethren, and his foolish talk does but little harm excepting with ignorant people.

*Dr. Curtis died Jan. 26th, 1912.