LIVE STOCK breeders' ASSOCIATION. 1 6/ 



<iitions get them in such shape that they will not produce a disease like 

 blackleg- in its most virulent form, we also may have a condition in 

 which we can grow these germs in such a way that they will produce 

 the disease in a more virulent form. That is shown in the disease of 

 rabies or hydrophobia. In passing the germs of that disease through 

 rabbits we get a disease which is much more virulent, the period of 

 incubation is considerably reduced and the disease appears in a more 

 ■dreadful form. It so happens that these organisms that we introduce 

 into an animal system are capable of either becoming deadened or 

 reduced in strength or becoming stronger and more virulent. Fur- 

 thermore, these attenuated organisms once introduced into a system 

 also may be brought back to their original strength and their original 

 ability to produce the disease, and that is what has happened in a great 

 many cases — has happened in some cases — not to put it too strongly, 

 especially with the virus or vaccine of anthrax. You do not have 

 snthrax in this State so very much, but in some states it is quite 

 serious, and when it once enters a community it carries ofif stock 

 very rapidly. In order to protect themselves in various districts, the 

 stock raisers have brought this vaccine of anthrax into the community 

 and as a result they have started the disease. Some have attributed it 

 to the fact that the vaccine was not properly made, that the company 

 ■making the vaccine did not take the proper care and got into it some 

 organisms which were not sufficiently attenuated, but it might have 

 been, and we have proved it possible many times in the laboratory, 

 that the germs have been attenuated, but by passing them through 

 individuals that were particularly susceptible to the disease, they 

 will bring the organisms back to their original strength and make 

 them as dangerous as when the laboratory experts began their work 

 npon them. The danger is not so great in blackleg vaccine because the 

 germs seem to be more under our control, but in anthrax there is this 

 •element of danger, and there is a possibility of such danger in black- 

 leg where we introduce the vaccine into a new community. Of course, 

 where the disease is already prevalent and present, where a man is 

 •directly surrounded by these diseases, then the only thing for him to 

 •do is to inoculate his stock with the vaccine that he can secure, to 

 prevent the disease. He has to do it then as a protection, but in a 

 locality where these diseases are not present, to go ahead ^inoculating 

 stock with the various chemical products of vaccine companies is an 

 exceedingly dangerous thing. Thev do it in the West sometimes as 

 an insurance measure. Some people spray their fruit trees and vines 

 as a protective measure, not knowing that any disease is going to 



