The Doctors Disagreed

THE DOCTORS DISAGREED

DID THE MANCHESTER SHEEP HAVE ANTHRAX.

Grand Rapids Doctors Say They Did and the State Veterinary and an Ann Arbor Doctor Deny It.

During the past summer the alleged cases of anthrax in a flock of sheep on the farm of William Rushton, three and a half miles southwest of Manchester, has caused much discussion. The controversy will not down, and has broken out afresh in the Manchester Enterprise and Grand Rapids papers. The Enterprise devotes a column to the subject. It says: "As stated in our personal column items last week, L. L. Conkey, dean of the Grand Rapids veterinary college, came here to investigate the matter of anthrax in a flock of sheep owned by Wm. Rushton, as reported last July.

"In company with Dr. Ackerson he drove out to Mr. Rushton's, where he got a full history of the case, examined the sheep, visited the lot where the sheep were pastured at the time they were sick, and brought away with turn some of the wool from the sheep that died. He also dug up a quantity of earth where the sheep lay, which he claimed he would test for anthrax germs.

"Returning to town he brought to the Enterprise office a large microscope and a number of slides with specimens of bacillus anthracis, etc. One slide was marked 'Anthrax from Manchester sheep. ' This, Dr. Conkey said, Dr. Whinnery made from the parts of Mr. Rushton's sheep sent him in July by Dr. Ackerson.

"We invited the local physicians, business men and farmers on the streets to come to the office and examine these specimens. Dr. Klopfenstein remarked that he had some anthrax slides that he had prepared while in college. At Dr. Conkey's request they were brought in, and examination proved the two to be identical. It was the opinion of those present that if the slide marked anthrax by Dr. Whinnery was from the Rushton sheep, then that sheep had anthrax.

"Dr. Conkey told the Enterprise that he had slight hopes of doing much with the earth he had taken, but would do his best, and on Tuesday Dr. Ackerson received a letter from him stating that the soil was alive with anthrax spores. He said that he would inoculate guinea pigs with the virus to further prove the case, and yesterday we received the following telegram:

"Grand Rapids, Dec. 13. "Mat D. Blosser: - Have positively reproduced anthrax in living animal in 24 hours. L. L. CONKEY, "Dean Veterinary College.

"If this be true, the state veterinarian was mistaken, and Dr. Ackerson and the college people were right." 

Under date of Dec. 11, Dr. Geo. W. Dumphy, state veterinarian, writes as follows:

"I wrote Mr. Rushton a few weeks ago in regard to the matter, and now send you a full report. We made a thorough investigation of the disease in every way and found no traces of anthrax whatever. In the first place I inoculated both guinea pigs and rabbits with material from the blood, spleen, liver and other organs, but could not produce anthrax. I then brought one of the bacteriologists from the university, Dr. Waite, and killed one of the diseased sheep that Mr. Rushton had left and took material from all the internal organs; and Dr. Waite's report after a thorough, scientific investigation in Dr. Novi's laboratory, was, that there was no trace of anthrax. And his further experiments in inoculating animals did not reveal the least trace of the disease.

"Now, after all these investigations by Dr. Waite, and my own experiments and with the history of the disease, their symptoms and post mortem appearances, I state boldly and emphatically that anthrax did not exist in Wm. Rushton's flock. I wish to state further that no man that has ever seen a case of true anthrax or read any authentic literature on the history, symptoms and post mortem appearance of the disease, would believe or a moment that this was a case of anthrax. No veterinarian, or even a school boy, could have been misled by the symptoms of the disease of this flock, or the post mortem appearances.

"The farmers in the vicinity of Manchester need not be alarmed by the fear of anthrax, as it has not existed in the county in fact, but simply in imagination. The flocks that were affected had a parasitic disease that has existed in the state for a number of years, and has shown itself in several counties in the past."

Dr. Dell, of this city, who accompanied Dr. Dumply on his visit to Mr. Rushton's farm, says the sheep they killed was the last one of the number that was sick. They were told that all the other sheep had been sick in the same way. If the ground where the sheep was buried was alive with anthrax spores, it would be so dangerous that not only the sheep in the neighborhood, but the people as well, would have taken the disease. The sheep died simply of parasitical disease that often shows up in this state. Dr. Dell says the matter will be further investigated.