PEEVENTION OF PLEURO-PNEUMONIA. 165 



recommended by Dr Willems of Hasselt, who first suggested tlie 

 procedure; the second is the rude plan usually adopted by dairy- 

 men; and the last is preferred by the veterinarians of Great 

 Britain for the various advantages of facility, efficiency, cleanli- 

 ness, and general safety above the others. 



The selection of the tail near the point, as a suitable part for the 

 operation, in practice has proved to be a wise one, and for tliis 

 reason: — At this point there is little substance to be involved in 

 the inflammatory process, and if sloughing or gangrene follows, 

 there is less likelihood of serious disturbance of the system from 

 the absorption of the results of those morbid processes. The 

 loss of the lower portion of the tail is not of much consecjuence, 

 so long as the animals are rescued from a fatal malady, and thus 

 the locality has special advantages over all others which may be 

 selected. Some practitioners inoculated animals in the dew -lap, 

 fore-arm, &c., but the residts were generally such as forbid the 

 practice. On this point Dr Willems says : — 



" Many persons think that inoculation for peripneumonia is 

 more conveniently practised in the dew-lap than in the tail, but 

 such persons are solely guided by theoretic views and not by 

 experience. For instance, M. Mavis, V.S. of the Government of 

 Hasselt, desirous of modifying my method of procedure, inocu- 

 lated about thirty beasts in the dew-lap, and this is the result. 

 At ihe commencement of August sixteen beasts were inoculated 

 in the dew-lap, belonging to M. Claes; twelve of them fell 

 victims to the consequences of the operations. At M. Mavis' 

 brewery at Hasselt, two cows were inoculated in the dew-lap ; both 

 died. At M. Ant. Vinkerbosch's two oxen were inoculated in 

 the dew-lap, and they likewise both shared the same fate about 

 hfteen days subsequent to the operation. Thus, through bad 

 inoculation, have many beasts been killed outright."* 



The experience of Australian experimenters is conflicting.-|- 

 After inoculating in the tail, and finding that organ implicated 

 with suu'ounding parts in general tumefaction, the reporters 

 concluded it was not the proper part. " Others," say they, "we 

 inoculated in the fore-arm ; we took a piece of tow and satiu'ated 

 it in the matter obtained from the diseased lung," and this pro- 

 cedure was based on the conclusion of one of the body, who 

 adds — " 1 reasoned in my own mind that the tail was not the 

 most suitable place, for there was no muscle to form a suppurating 

 cyst, so as to throw oif any excess of virus, or any quantity of 

 deleterious matter that might collect there — that part of the tail 

 near the point being composed principally of skin, blood-vessels, 

 nerves, and bones. All those cases where inoculation was per- 

 formed in the fore-arm went on favourably, the wound suppur- 



* Eec. Med. Vet. 



+ lleport to Commissioners of iSTew South Wale?, 1862. 



