I 



and added to Ihe Department. As a matter of course 

 the other rooms of the Laboratory have always been 

 at the disposal of the Department to be used for scien- 

 tific researches; but it is evident, from what has been 

 said above, the conditions, under which work has been 

 carried on, have been anything but favourable. 



As members of the staff an assistant and a helper 

 without any medical training were appointed; later on 

 a consulting veterinary was added. As an assistant, Dr. 

 Th. Madsen, was appointed. He has during the last 

 years conducted the work of the Department, and will 

 be appointed chief of the Serum-Institute laboratory. 



The work in this small sero-therapeutic laboratory 

 took a somewhat different turn from what was expected 

 at the outset. Indeed the difficulties and uncertainties 

 of the serum production soon proved much greater than 

 we supposed would be the case. It must be remembe- 

 red that at that time the few existing serum manufactories 

 which possessed a greater experience in the matter than 

 ourselves, had, in the interest of their business, preserved 

 an absolute silence with regard to their methods and 

 results. Thereby the difficulties, connected with the 

 work in the Sero-therapeutic Department, were greatly 

 increased. We had here to pass through the same 

 painful experiences with regard to the production of 

 strong toxin and strong serum as they had elsewhere. 

 The race of diphtheria bacillus that one month will 

 make a toxin of great strength, may by the next have 

 lost its toxigenic power, and as to the strength of the 

 serum, that is evidently dependent, not only upon the 

 individuality of the horse, ,,strength" of the toxin, mode 

 of immunising and time of bleeding but upon other 



