124 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [April 



various pathogenic bacteria wherever they may be 

 found. The infected animal is itself a focus of infection 

 which undeT certain circumstances had better be destroyed 

 ill toto, the individual being sacrificed and the body put 

 out of the way of doing harm by means of cremation or 

 burial. Under other circumstances it may be sufficient 

 to isolate the infected animal and to disinfect all 

 discharges containing the pathogenic germ and all 

 objects contaminated by such discharges. By such 

 measures the extension of epidemic diseases fatal to 

 domestic animals may usually be arrested. But it may 

 happen that the extent of the epidemic prevalence and 

 the number of animals already exposed to infection make 

 these measures inadequate or difficult of execution. In 

 this case we have, for certain diseases, another method 

 of prophylaxis which has been extensively employed 

 with excellent results. I refer to the method of protect- 

 ive inoculations, which we owe largely to the genius 

 and patient researches of the distinguished French chem- 

 ist Pasteur and his pupils. 



Toussaint, a pioneer in researches relating to protective 

 inoculations, has a short paper in the Comptes-Rendus of 

 the French Academy of Sciences of July 12, 1880, entitled 

 Immunity from Anthrax {charbon) acquired as a Result 

 of Protective Inoculations. 



In this paper he announces his discovery of the 

 important fact that the anthrax bacillus does not form 

 spores in the tissues or liquids of the body of an infected 

 animal, -but multiplies alone by binary division: *^Sa 

 multi'plicaUon se fait toujours par une division du my- 

 celium,." 



In the same communication he reports his success in 

 conferring immunity upon five sheep by means of pro- 

 tective inoculations, and also upon four young dogs. We 

 must therefore accord him the priority in the publication 



