150 



latter loss violent sickness, and, in many cases, the latter is even in- 

 active. 10. Animals which become violently ill under inoculation, 

 and show the characteristic indications of rinderpest, are not sensitive 

 to farther infection. Such animals, however, as are but slightly ill 

 after infection are not always spared when exposed to a repeated 

 attack. 11. It is impossible to say how many years such animals as 

 have survived the inoculation of rinderpest remain protected against a 

 new infection ; possibly during their whole lives. An immunity has 

 been shown for a period of at least six years, this being the extent to 

 which the inquiries of the committee have carried them. 12. The ques- 

 tion whether inoculation has any influence upon the course of the rin- 

 derpest when the natural disease has attacked the same herd cannot 

 now be definitely answered. 13. Dysentery is no protection against 

 rinderpest, as animals attacked with this disease do not lose their sus- 

 ceptibility to the infection of rinderpest when exposed to its influence. 

 14. The discharges from the eyes and nose are the most efficient of all 

 means of loropagating the disease. . The result of the inoculation was 

 the same, whether applied on the neck, the ears, or the tail; Avhether it 

 was communicated by drawing through a thread saturated with virus, 

 or by inserting a strip of the skin cut from an animal which had died 

 of the disease. The characteristic features of rinderpest present them- 

 selves generally between the fourth and eighth day after inoculation ; 

 and those animals in which the disease becomes fatal generally died on 

 the sixth day after the outbreak. 



Experiments with reference to the power of infection t-esiding in the 

 skin of diseased animals resulted as follows : a. Sound cattle can be 

 affected by fresh or by imperfectly dried and cleaned skins of affected 

 ones. b. The skins of diseased animals which have been simply cleaned 

 by washing with lye and ashes or lime-water, or which have been dried 

 at a considerable degree of heat or thoroughly dried in the open air, do 

 not communicate the infection. The drying of the skins, however, should 

 be conducted, if in the air, at a distance from stables or meadows, and 

 in winter artificial heat must be employed. 



In conclusion, the committee make the following remarks : Although 

 the result of the experiments prosecuted to the present time upon inoc- 

 ulation do not entitle the committee to present inoculation as a preserv- 

 ative against the propagation of the rinderi)est, they believe that land 

 proprietors should be authorized to establish inoculating institutions at 

 their own expense, the application to be made with the consent oi" 

 neighboring owners of the cattle 5 and that these establishments should 

 be widely removed from the roads upon which cattle are transported, 

 and that they should be i)rfesided over by thoroughly educated veterinary' 

 siu'geons. 



Variations of flowering seasons. — Fritsch has lately published 

 the result of an investigation into the variations of the seasons of 

 flowering of plants in different countries, in the same year, and in differ- 

 ent years; and basing his conclusions upon fifty-two plants and twenty- 

 three stations, he remarks that the variations of the seasons of flower- 

 ing are greater, as this time naturally falls in the earlier part of the 

 year. Thus, of plants flowering in March, the variation will amount to 

 thirty-seven days; while of those flowering in June, it amounts only to 

 twenty-four days. These variations, again, are on an average as gi-eat 

 in positive seasons as in negative; that is to say, the acceleration of the 

 flowering season, on an average, of each plant investigated, is as great 

 as the retardation ; and it is only necessary to divide the entire varia- 



