East Cc>ast Fi:\ kf{. 205 



suspeiulerl, tlie lesulU were noted, nnd tliey were unsjitisfartory. 

 Dr. Koeh's predktiun that herds iiifet-ted at tlie time inoc-idatioTi was 

 begun woidd not be benetited was amply fultillod, lint nnfortnnatelv 

 the immunity which he anticipated wouKl be ((inferred on clean herds 

 was not established, and clean inoculated herds offered neither more nor 

 less resistance to infection than uninuculated herds when the disease 

 appeared amonijst them, while the mortality in such herds was nowise 

 reduced. 



The failure of Koch's method, which was also experimented with 

 in the Transvaal, proved a great disappointment to all interested, a 

 disappointment which found expression in the resolution passed at the 

 8outh African Conference of Veterinaiy .Surgeons held in Capetown in 

 1904, where the delegates subn:itted "That this Conference, after con- 

 sidering the reports of the scientists who have had practical experience 

 of the effects of inoculation as prt>posed by Dr. Koch, is reluctantly 

 compelled to conclude that it will be vain to trust to inoculation to 

 arrest the spread of African coast fever." After this the Khodesian 

 authorities fell back upon their former policy of quarantining and the 

 prohibition of movements of cattle within infected areas, and as this 

 policy was loN'ally supported by the farming community, many of whom 

 were subjected to great personal inconvenience by i-eason of the strin- 

 gency of the regulations, it is exceedingly satisfactory to find that in 

 spite of the ditficulty of dealing with natixe stock, the colon}' of 

 Rhodesia is practically clean to-day, although there is still one in- 

 fected fenced-in area under quarantine at Umzingwane, about thirty 

 miles from Bulawayo, another at Selukwe and a third at Victoria. It 

 is true that an arlditional fresh outbreak was reported only the other 

 day near Umtali, attributable to the introduction of infected stock 

 from Portuguese territoiy, but the latest information leads me to 

 believe that this outbreak is well in hand, and located, as it is, in the 

 midst of our intelligent farming population, who have learned in the 

 hard school of experience what can be done and what cannot be done 

 in outbreaks of East Coast fever, I think we mav rest assured that 

 this outbreak will not be allowed to get out of hand. 



Transvaal. 



Turning from the Khodesian outbreak to the Transvaal one, it 

 may be observed that the history of the introduction and spread of the 

 disease in this colony serves to show that I'ailway extension is some- 

 times attended by resvilts undreamed of by those b}' whom such exten- 

 sions are planned, and that if there had been no Delagoa T^ay railroad, 

 there is every likelihood that this disease would not now have invaded 

 the large area of territory through which it spread soon after its intro- 

 duction. It is trvie, I believe, that some of the centres of infection in 

 the northern portion of the Zoutpansberg district may be attributed 

 to the moAement of infected cattle from Rhodesia by refugees, who 

 sought a sanctuary in the latter colony towards the close of the late 

 war, and who slipped across the border after obtaining permission to 



