50 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



destroyed, either entirely or for a limited period. Much time will be necessary, from the 

 very nature of the question, before a positive solution of it can be arrived at. 



Verheyen, as president reporter of the Belgian commission, issued a report dated 

 Brussels, February 6, 1853. It opened in the following terms : 



In ;i first report, embracing the period from the, 24th of May to the 15th of July, 1852, it is stated that the commis 

 sion hud inoculated, either by the operations of its members or under its supervision, one hundred and eighty-nine 

 beasts of the boyine race of all ages and both sexes. Eight herds, numbering one hundred and twenty-nine head, in 

 habited stables in which plcuropueumonia had lately raged, or was still raging at the time of the inoculation ; eight 

 other herds, composed of sixty beasts, abode in healthy localities, or such as were considered healthy, inasmuch as they 

 had never been visited by the disease or had been spared by the scourge for at least eighteen months. 



AVe made it appear 



1. That the operation had been followed by effects upon all the cattle inoculated. 



2. That the matter remained inert upon two cows that we knew to have escaped from exudative pleuropneumonia. 



3. That five eows had perished from the consequences of inoculation. 



4. That two had lost the whole of their tails. 



5. That six had partially lost them. 



fi. That four calves had been seized with an articular affection. 



7. That, contrary to Mr. Willems s observations, the insertion of the matter in the tails of calves produced a local 

 affection there. 



8. That, finally, at the moment of dispatching that first report, M. Dele informed the commission that a case of 

 pleiiropneiimoiiia had just appeared at the Abbey of La Trappo upon an inoculated cow. 



The favorable situation certified on the 15th of July has been maintained, with but one exception, for the individ 

 uals of those herds which the proprietors still possess. The articular affection observed in four cows has not occurred 

 again; therefore, a simple coincidence must bo admitted, and this casualty explained independent of inoculation. 



The commission resolved on extending its operations, and this they did by associat 

 ing with themselves all the country veterinary practitioners, in accordance with the 

 organization of the civil veterinary service in Belgium, and, secondly, by undertaking a 

 series of direct experiments. 



The government on its part did not remain inactive. It organized local commissions 

 charged with the supervision of the operations ; the losses occasioned by the inoculation 

 were assimilated to those of animals slaughtered on account of public benefit; it under 

 took to pay the difference between the estimated price and the selling price of the inocu 

 lated beasts which, contracting exudative pleuropneumonia, should be sent by their pro 

 prietors to the shambles, and of which the officers at the latter would make declarations 

 to the authorities. 



Further on M. Verheyen says: 



Wishing to free the inoculation from the numerous accessory questions which that practice occasions, the com 

 mission adopted for its experiments, and submitted to the minister of the interior for his sanction, this simple programme: 



1. To purchase sound beasts; to watch them during a certain time, in order to be assured of the integrity of their 

 pulmonary organs. 



2. To request M. Willcms to inoculate them. 



3. Only to admit as preserved those, in which that physician should have recognized the specific inflammation caused 

 by a productive inoculation, and which he should have pronounced to he in the enjoyment of the immunity. 



4. To have, the beasts cohabit with animals alllicted with exudative plenropneumonia, at the same time placing 

 some inoculated animals in identical conditions. 



A first batch of eight cows and heifers of Ardennes breed, selected in localities free from exudative plenropnenmo - 

 nia, arrived at the veterinary school. M. Willems inoculated them on the 16th of August; on the llth of September, 

 those, numbered 1, 2, 3, 5, fi, and 8 were examined by M. Willems, who declared that the inoculation had succeeded in 

 those beasts. 



On the same day he inoculated eight other beasts purchased by M. Windelincx, on account of the commission, at 

 the fair of Tirlemont. Wo cannot affirm that they were, like the preceding, from a locality free from plcuropiieumonia ; 

 we gained, however, by a rigorous and repeated examination, the certainty that the thoracic organs were intact. At 

 the same sitting, M. Willems rciuoculatcd the two Ardennes cows numbered 4 and?. 



All showing themselves still refractory on the 29th of September, M. Willems was apprised of it ; the letter was 

 unanswered. 



On the 10th of October an ox that marked No. 2 of the herd that came from Tirlemont, exhibited a swelling at 

 the end of the tail. That portion of the, caudal appendage, being seized with dry mortification, was eliminated. 



