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hoped to find some means of destroying either the life of the poisonous germ 

 or its chemical power by a substance that may be inhaled with the poison and 

 destroy it, or that may destroy it before being inhaled. '' The developed miasms 

 hang suspended in the air ; we may, perhaps, one day destroy them, if not in 

 the outer atmosphere, at least in the stalls and sheds where the animals inhale 

 and absorb them." So hopes Mr. Bourguignon ; and every substance that 

 might prove a disinfectant has been vainly tried against the cattle plague. The 

 Mark Lane Express (London) says : 



"The farmer, in his dismay, is justified in trying every nostrum suggested 

 against the plague. The sheds smell of chloride of lime, the yards reek with 

 chlorine, the beasts' noses are dabbled every morning with tar, or they weav on 

 their horns rings of flannel wet with odorous carbonic acid. Men administer 

 frequent drinks of chloride of potash, chloric ether, and whiskey, or give 

 cayenne pepper, or season the water-troughs with acids, or serve ten drops of 

 arsenicum out of a soda-water bottle. Still, yards full of bullocks are being 

 cleared before our eyes, despite of every such precaution ; but brave-hearted to 

 the last, we yet hope that something may turn up." 



This experience of Great Britain shows that disinfectants to destroy the power 

 of the poison have proved unavailing, and preventives, which render the animal 

 proof against the poison, have also been tried. These are vaccination and 

 inoculation. The Russians have inoculated the poison into healthy animals, but 

 most of them died. They have taken the poison from the latter and inoculated 

 it to a second set ; and the poison from this set, and tried upon a third set, and 

 so on to the tenth lot. The malignity of the poison became less and less, as it 

 was transmitted from the first to the tenth lot. Mr. Bourguignon thus refers to 

 this Russian practice, and its results : 



*' The first inoculative attempts were very fatal ; they caused the death of all 

 the inoculated animals. But it was soon perceived that these grievous results, 

 far from prejudicing the theory, really confirmed it ; and that the virus, at- 

 tenuated in its toxical (poisonous) properties, would prove as efli'ectual as was 

 expected. And truly, in 1854 and 1855, at the Dorpat establishment, the in- 

 oculations made with a better selected virus afforded results less disastrous. At 

 Kozau they were still more satisfactory. In fine, passing from experiment to 

 experiment, they arrived at the conclusion that it Avas necessary to inoculate 

 several heads of cattle, the one after the other, without having recourse to any 

 other virus than the first inoculated, so that they miglit thereby obtain virus of 

 the second, third, fourth, fifth, and up to the tenth generation. The virus tlius 

 attenuated in its morbid effects answered at length every experiment, and oxen 

 thus inoculated could mingle with impunity with diseased cattle. 



" At the veterinary establishment of Ohalkoff they inoculated, during eight 

 meetings, 1,059 animals, with virus of the third generation, and the results were 

 as satisfactory as could be wished for, only sixty animals having sunk under 

 the effects of this preventive operation." 



We have not seen any account of experiments in Great Britain by inoculation. 

 The only hope that Mr. Bourguignon has is in this preventive, but, as he says, 

 some day we may, perhaps, destroy the miasms in the stalls and sheds, and, 

 therefore, as said by the Mark Lane Express, the farmer needs to try every- 

 thing. 



We have noticed the present condition of this class of preventives, that all 

 may see the absolute necessity of relying on the other kind of preventives, 



