BY T. HARVEY JOHNSTON AND M. J. BANCROFT. 235 



There has been considerable notice given in the public 

 press of Queensland and elsewhere as well as in official 

 publications, to the statements of Mr. G. W. Munro Hull, 

 of Eumundi, who claims to possess a herd of tick-resisting 

 cattle. In an article in the Queensland Agricultural Journal 

 of September, 1912 (pp. 294-6) he called attention to the 

 presence amongst his cows of a certain number of animals 

 which he claimed remained free from ticks, whilst other 

 animals were infested. He there stated that such a tick- 

 resisting contlition was produced by vaccinating the animals 

 witha" particular organism " — " a tick destroying microbe" 

 — contained in "' lymph from tiny vesicles " which appeared 

 periodically on the escutcheon and dewlap of the first 

 resistant cow he had noticed in his herd. "' While untreated 

 stock shewed the ravages of ticks on their necks ;ind flanks, 

 the treated stock grew sleek and clean-coated and although 

 many of them have not been sprayed or dipped for the 

 past 18 months they shew no signs of tick " (p. 294). Any 

 ticks that adhered to such vaccinated stock had a very short 

 life, larval ticks dying and falling off in a few days after 

 attachment. Rarely a tick might mature on such beasts 

 and eggs might be laid but none had hatched. He drew 

 attention to the peculiarity that these vesicles should be 

 apparent only on the escutcheon and dewlap, two favourite 

 liabits of the tick itself. Vaccinated animals had been 

 turned out by him into open country for a couple of months 

 at a time but always maintained their freedom from ticks, 

 while wandering stock were heavily infested and some had 

 actually died of tick worry and tick poverty', even though 

 there was abundance of fodder. He claimed that in two 

 cases he had " immune calves from vaccinated cattle. 

 One Vaccinated cow, her daughter and granddaughter all 

 •clean," but admitted that these cases were not enough to 

 enable him to state whether the condition was hereditarily 

 "transmitted. 



A little later Mr. Hidl's claims were widened. The 

 following list of those made by him for the cows Clover and 

 Tinkerbell is contained in Parliamentary papers, Queens- 

 land, 1914, Vol. 2, pp. 941-3 ; a report by Mr. 0. J. Pound 

 on these claims being also inchided in the publication 

 <P.R. 1914) ; 



