204 Repoht S.A.A. Advanck-mknt of 8cienck. 



no signs of abating in virulence, and as it liad in addition to spreading 

 in Rhodesia also invaded the Trans\"aal, chietly hv way of Delagoa Bay, 

 and its spread over the whole of South Africa seemed to be only a 

 (question of time, the Go\ernments of South Africa jointly engaged 

 Prof. Koch and brought him out to South Africa to renew his investi- 

 gations into its character, in the hope that he might be able to suggest 

 a remedy. Prof. Koch arrived in Bulawayo, which was selected as the 

 most convenient centre where he could study the disease, cibout the 

 beginning of 1903, and immediately set to work with his cust<5niary 

 vigour and industry, and in March, 1903, he published his first interim 

 report, in which he states that as a result of experiments made, that 

 he had come to the conclusion that the disease, which he suggested 

 should be called African coast fexer, although closely related to Texas 

 fever, was different from it, laying stress upon the fact which by this 

 time had also attracted the attention of Messrs. Theilei- and Stockman 

 in the Transvaal, that the disease could not be transmitted tt) suscep- 

 tible animals by inoculation, as we originally believed to be the case, 

 the reactions obtained in earlier experiments being simply those of 

 ordinary Texas fever, induced by using blood for inoculation purposes 

 drawn from animals suffering from a mixed infection. Di*. Koch spent 

 over a year in Rhodesia, and as I was privilege*! to assist him in t.-arry- 

 ing out his experijnents, I am in a positioji to testif}' to the energy 

 with which he devoted himself to his work, and although he did not 

 achieve success, he certainly deserved it. UnfortunateU', however, 

 Dr. Koch departed from our midst at the close of his term of service, 

 leaving us with a long record of negative experiments, an erroneous 

 assumption regarding the iflentity of the tick by which the disease was 

 .spread and the repetition of a conviction expressed in a previous report 

 that it was possible to innnunise animals against East Coast fever, if 

 they were inoculated with the blood of animals which had recovered 

 fi'om the disease. This suggested method of conferring ininninity did 

 not commend itself very favourably to the majority of Rhodesian stock- 

 owners, but it Avas put into practice by the Governuient on a large 

 .scale in the Victoria district before Dr. Koch left : in fact, it was 

 begun untler his personal supervision in November, 1903, the animals 

 used for inoculation purposes being cattle selected by Dr. K<x'h himself 

 anrl declared by him to be suitable for this pur})ose. 



In his third report, in which he first recommended a method of 

 inoculation, Dv. Koch advised that susceptible animals should be in- 

 jected with 10 c.c. each of fresh defibrinated blooil, taken from the 

 jugular vein of an animal which had recovered from the disease, this 

 injection to be repeated once a week f(jr four weeks, then once a fort- 

 night for two months and afterwards once a month ; but this line of 

 tieatment was modified in his fourth report to the e.xtent of recom- 

 mending regular fortnightly inoculations witli 5 c.c. of defibrinated 

 blood for a period of four or five months. To give the method a fair 

 trial, the inoculation of native cattle in the Victoria district was per- 

 severed with till over 3700 head had been subjected to twelve inocula- 

 tions and close on 2000 head to eight or nine. Operations were then 



