BY DR. OSCAR KATZ. 531 



was found as in ordinary rabbits dead from the disease. A control-rabbit 

 died 1-^ hours before, at 3 p.m., that day (as already mentioned under 

 Sections L, III. and IV.). 



According to the results thus obtained in the foregoing experi- 

 ments, which are not numerous and not varied enough to admit 

 of any definite conclusions to be drawn, the possibility of the pro- 

 tective power, on rabbits, of sterilised broth-cultures introduced 

 successively into the digestive canal, against a subsequent infec- 

 tion by active cultures, can hardly be denied. We see that a 

 subsequent feeding on Iccm. of virulent culture had in several 

 cases not the slightest effect on previously treated rabbits, while 

 control-rabbits succumbed, with one exception (1 ccm.). Continued 

 feedings up to 6 ccm. (two cases) of active material caused the 

 death of all rabbits except one, out of Section III. This rabbit 

 survived even inoculation, of which another fresh rabbit perished 

 quickly.* 



Cultures in peptonised rabbit-broth, and sterilised, proved them- 

 selves, against my expectation, inferior to such made in plain 

 rabbit-broth, as regards their protective influence on rabbits. 



Is " Chicken-cholera " a Contagious Disease among Rabbits? 



The question as to whether, or to what degree, rabbits suffering 

 or dead from " chicken-cholera," are able to communicate the fatal 

 disease to other healthy rabbits with which they are associated, 

 was one that engaged my attention for a considerable time. 



Experiments hy Pasteur and his Representatives. 



Pasteur states that fresh rabbits placed with others which have 

 ])artaken of food contaminated by virulent chicken-cholera microbes, 

 die in large numbers.! 



* If possible, and unless the rabbit should die from some cause or other, 

 I intend to try another inoculation several months after the first. 



t Sur la destruction des lapins en Australie et dans la Nouvelle-Z^lande 

 Annales de VInstitut Pasteur, 2me ann^e, 1888, p. 6. 



