338 ' THE MICROSCOPICAL NEWS. 
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Dr. Freire, having succeeded in isolating the micro-organism which 
is apparently peculiar to yellow fever, and having shown that with 
its aid he could produce yellow fever in rabbits and guinea pigs, 
“attenuated” its virulence by means of successive cultures in gela- 
tine, and then found that animals inoculated with the attenuated 
forms exhibited febrile symptoms of a very mild character, and 
were subsequently proof against inoculations with unattenuated, 
and under ordinary conditions fatal, virus. Reasoning from these 
experiments to what would appear to be a logical conclusion, Dr. 
Freire has convinced himself that a method which protects animals 
will also protect the nobler species, and, what is more, he appears 
to have likewise convinced a Commission, consisting of seven Bra- 
zilian doctors, appointed by the Brazilian Government to verify his 
experiments. He has already “vaccinated” five persons with 
attenuated Cryptococcus xanthogenicus (the modest name of the 
small organism in question), and the Commission have authorised 
him to continue vaccinating a great number of persons. Of the 
five individuals vaccinated, two are French, one is Portuguese, one 
Brazilian, and the remaining one is English. None of them has 
ever had yellow fever, except the Brazilian, who had an attack 
eleven years ago. The symptoms resulting from the vaccination 
are buzzing in the ears, a slight rise of temperature after an interval 
of twenty-four hours, dull pains in the abdominal and lumbar 
regions, in short “the symptoms which characterise the so-called 
‘yellow sickness’ which has been observed during yellow fever 
epidemics” in Martinique, at Gibraltar, in Brazil, and elsewhere. 
It is specially worthy of note that, of the five persons who have had 
the courage to submit to the operation (three punctures in the arm 
with a lancet previously dipped in a “culture” of the sixth gene- 
ration), the solitary representative of Great Britain is a woman. 
She has been resident in Brazil for many years, a fact which may 
account for her indifference to the denunciations of “ Pasteurism” 
by an eminent representative of the same sex in this country. As 
for the two Frenchmen they are new arrivals in Brazil, and there- 
fore may be supposed to be under the influence of the enthusiasm 
lately manifested in France with regard to the discoverer of anthrax 
vaccination. Whether Dr. Freire’s new departure is destined to 
inaugurate successive vaccinations against all the zymotic diseases 
remains to be seen. Should his method prove as effective in con- 
trolling yellow fever in Brazil as Jenner’s discovery has proved in 
this country in controlling small-pox, a very remarkable result will 
have been attained. The idea of successive vaccinations with the 
specific microbes of a long series of epidemic diseases, however, 
calls to mind Mark Twain’s apprehension with regard to patent 
medicines, that “they might go fooling about one’s system curing 
something they were not intended to cure.” —Manchester Guardian. 
