PHEVE^'TION OF PLEUUO-PXEUMONIA. 187 



lative interference or alteration of their veterinary police ; and 

 yet, the Government printer's ink ^vas hardly dry upon their 

 notable report when a counter report came from the butchers of 

 Geelong, who had bought for slaughter the experimental bullocks, 

 that the animals were all diseased, unfit for human food, and 

 demanding back their money." * 



Before we conclude this report, we would direct the attention 

 of the reader to an article — the Leader — ^in the " Yeterinarian/'f 

 entitled the " Contagious nature of Pleuro-pneumonia," in which 

 is given a number of useful experiments by Professor Simonds, 

 to determine this question. They were communicated to the 

 Eoyal Agricultural Society, and appeared in their journal, vol. 

 vii. S.S., part 2, and again with fuller details in 1874. AVe are 

 the more inclined to value these experiments because they not 

 only determine an important point in reference to the mode by 

 which the disease is propagated, but they also conclusively eluci- 

 date, we think, that question relating to the non-existence of a 

 " ^^.rus '"' in the fluid expressed from the lungs. It has been pointed 

 out already, that in order to produce any contagion in a healthy 

 animal the particular poison of that disease must iirst be intro- 

 duced to the circidation, and we have no doubt in determining 

 such an event when the virus and a healthy animal are both 

 present. The serum of the blood, secretion from the nostrils, 

 or products of characteristic wounds, are the respective means by 

 which disease is communicated ; for instance the discharge from 

 a farcy wound in the horse will communicate genuine farcy in 

 another horse, and also to man ; the nasal discharges of a glan- 

 dered horse wiU likewise produce identical glanders ; the fluid 

 from the vesicle of small-pox in sheep or man will give rise to 

 the same diseases in the appropriate species ; and the saliva of a 

 rabid dog will generate rabies in another animal even of difierent 

 species. In " the virus " we recognise the specific poison ol a 

 given disease, and any fluid, secretion, or excretion of the body 

 containing such virus, when introduced to the healthy body of 

 another animal by means of the circulation, mucous membranes, 

 &c., it produces the genuine malady in every way like that from 

 which the first animal suffered. This law holds good in all those 

 diseases for which we practice vaccination, a mild method of 

 inoculation by which a mild form of the disease is induced, sufd- 

 cient to ensure the person against future severe attacks at least \ 

 and the object of inoculation is that of producing such mild form 

 of disease that shall confer such immunity, which would be verj' 

 desirable. On the contrary, however, we do not recognise the 

 least resemblance to pleuro-pneumonia from inoculation with 

 fluid from lung tissue of diseased animals. The veritable disease 

 is located in the lungs, and inoculation by " the virus " should, 

 * "Veterinarian," Sept. 1S75, p. 631. t Ibid, p. 722. 



