1882.1 



MICEOSCOPICAL JOCJE^AL. 



15 



est doubt that the new plan will prove 

 more satisfactory to the societies than 

 the old one. 



o 



Animal Vaccination. — In an 

 article published in Popida7' Sde?ice 

 Monthly, Dr. W. B. Carpenter has 

 presented this subject in the follow- 

 ing language : — 



" Thus, then, it becomes possible to af- 

 fect sheep and cattle with a forna of 

 anthrax-disease so mild as to bear much 

 the same relation to the severer forms 

 that cow-pox bears to small-pox ; and for 

 this artificial affection with the mitigated 

 disorder, Pasteur uses the term ' vaccina- 

 tion.' The question that now arises — to 

 which the whole previous investigation has 

 led up — is the most important of all : 

 Does this ' vaccination ' with the mild 

 virus afford the same protection against 

 the action of the severe, that is imparted 

 by cow-pox vaccination against small-pox .'' 

 To this question affirmative answers were 

 last year obtained by Professor Greenfield 

 (on Professor Burdon-Sanderson's sugges- 

 tion) in regard to bovine animals, and by 

 M. Toussaint in regard to sheep and dogs ; 

 the former, when vaccinated from rodents, 

 and the latter from fluids cultivated out- 

 side the living body after a method de- 

 vised by M. Toussaint, proving themselves 

 incapable of being infected with any form 

 of anthrax-disease, though repeatedly in- 

 oculated ^with the malignant virus, and 

 remaining free from all disorder, either 

 constitutional or local. The same result 

 having been obtained from experiments 

 made by Pasteur himself, probably about 

 the same date, with charbon-virus culti- 

 vated in the manner previously described, 

 it was deemed expedient by one of the 

 Provincial Agricultural Societies of France 

 that this important discovery should be 

 pubhcly demonstrated on a great scale. 

 Accordingly, a farm and a flock of fifty 

 sheep having been placed at M. Pasteur's 

 disposal, he vaccinated twenty-five of the 

 flock (distinguished by a perforation of 

 their ears) with the mzld virus on the 3d 

 of May last, and repeated the operation 

 on the 17th of the same month. The 

 animals all passed through a slight indis- 

 position, but at the end of the month 

 none of them were found to have lost 

 either fat, appetite, or liveliness. On the 

 31st of that month, all the fifty sheep, 

 without distinction, were inoculated with 

 the strongest charbon-virus, and M. Pas- 



teur predicted that on the following day 

 the twenty-five sheep inoculated for the 

 first time would all be dead, while those 

 protected by previous vaccination with 

 the mild virus would be perfectly free 

 from even slight indisposition. A large 

 assemblage of agricultural authorities, 

 cavalry-officers, and veterinaiy surgeons 

 having met at the field the next afternoon 

 (June 1st), the result was found to be ex- 

 actly in accordance with M. Pasteur s 

 predictions." 



Contagious Diseases of Ani- 

 mals. — Special Report No. 34 of the 

 Department of Agriculture, contains 

 several valuable contributions to the 

 knowledge of diseases of animals, to 

 which we cannot do justice in the 

 space at our disposal. However, some 

 of the investigations recorded in the 

 report deserve especial mention here; 

 among them those of Dr. D. E. Sal- 

 mon, on swine-plague and fowl-chol- 

 era. After recording some experi- 

 ments upon the efficiency of cer- 

 tain disinfectants in destroying the 

 virus of swine-plague, some microsco- 

 pical investigations in regard to the 

 nature of the virus are quite fully de- 

 tailed. 



Dr. Salmon finds a Micrococcus in 

 the blood of animals affected with 

 swine-plague, which he regards as the 

 possible cause of the disease. How- 

 ever, the precise relation between the 

 disease and the organisms referred to 

 is clearly stated as follows, quoting 

 from Dr. Salmon's report: — 



" If, in conclusion, we admit the 

 presence of a particular bacteria-form 

 in the effusions, or even in the blood, 

 in the disease, the facts already re- 

 ferred to in regard to the presence of 

 such organisms in non-contagious 

 maladies, often before death, renders 

 it necessary "that a connection be es- 

 tablished between such bacteria and 

 the contagium; certainly no satisfac- 

 tory connection or identity has been 

 shown to exist between the bacteria 

 and virus in this disease up to the 

 present time." 



There are many interesting obser- 

 vations described in this report, and 



