1016 KECORD OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



that the Algerian breeds of sheep are peculiarly refractory to the 

 disease, only exhibiting when inoculated the minor signs of its 

 action, viz. rise of temperature, glandular swellings, and low spirits. 

 The immunity is carried further with lambs born of dams inoculated 

 in the last stage of gestation, for inoculation is absolutely without 

 result in their case. 



One operation therefore effects two results, the immunity of the 

 mother and that of the offspring at the same time. 



M. Pasteur,* having determined to test independently some similar 

 results obtained by M. Louvrier, instituted experiments on cows to 

 ascertain the effect of inoculation with the bacteria which cause the 

 disease. On inoculation of two cows, each with five drops of a solution 

 of these organisms behind the right shoulder, swellings appeared on 

 both. In the one the swelling disappeared — no rise of temperature 

 occurring — by the fifth day after the operation. In the other, after 

 two days, the swelling extended to the belly, the cow became very 

 ill, the temperature rose from 38 "8° to 41*5° C. M. Louvrier then 

 applied his method of recovery, which consists of warming by friction, 

 and by subcutaneous injection of terebenthine, and of covering all the 

 body except the head with hay soaked in warm vinegar. By the 

 fourth day the temperature had fallen to 39-7°, but the swelling 

 under the stomach was very large, and the lymphatic glands of the 

 thigh hard and painful ; then the recovery became pronounced, by 

 the gradual fall of temperature and diminution of the swelling. 

 Subsequent inoculation of the first cow produced no effect. An- 

 other inoculated individual jiassed safely through the stages of the 

 disease above mentioned without the aid of M. Louvrier's pallia- 

 tive measures. On repeating the inoculation upon the two cows 

 which had passed through the disease with much pain, the only 

 result observed was a slight swelling. A third inoculation produced 

 no effect at all. 



Thus the disease once passed through cannot recur, as has been 

 already proved for French sheep. A further experiment shows that the 

 method of M. Louvrier is not a specific cure for the disease, for of 

 four inoculated cows, two of which were treated by him and two not, 

 one of each category died, while the two survivors showed no ill 

 effects when re-inoculated on the side opposite to that of the first 

 operation. 



The relative insusceptibility to the disease of the Algerian breeds 

 of sheep is explained by M. Pasteur as caused by a vital resistance of 

 the constitution, not — as held by M. Chauveau — by the presence in 

 the animals of substances obnoxious to the bacterium ; for with fowls, 

 merely cooling them brings out the charbon. M. Chauveau's facts 

 as to the Algerian sheep and the charbon harmonize well with 

 M. Pasteur's explanation. 



Immunity from Anthrax obtained by Inoculation. f — M. Tous- 

 saint's long experience has led him to believe that the bacterium of 

 anthrax is not completely at its ease when developing in animals, for 



* ' Comptcs Rendus,' xci. (1880) p. 531. f Ibid., p. 135. 



