59^ CLINICAL VETERINARY MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 



forty-five minims, either of diluted tuberculin, or of living or dead 

 cultures of canine tuberculosis, suspended in sterilised water. Except 

 in birds, in which they produced disturbance, these injections were 

 repeated eight to twelve times, at intervals of one to two weeks. 



The sera thus obtained were of no value ; either the animals 

 treated died of tuberculosis like the controls, or both subjects and 

 controls showed tuberculous lesions similar in point of intensity and 

 generalisation when (regarding it as useless to prolong the experiment 

 until the subjects died) the survivors were killed. 



It is known that in tuberculous patients specific buccal lesions are 

 relatively rare, although tubercle bacilli are to be met with in the 

 mouth of many consumptives, being carried there by expectoration. 

 Starting with this fact, M. Bloch, Doctor at the National Asylum at 

 Vincennes, propounded the question whether saliva might not exercise 

 an attenuating action on the tuberculous virus and on the infection it 

 produces. 



In tuberculosis especially every theory founded on observed facts 

 deserves to be submitted to experimental proof, and therefore M. 

 Cadiot undertook an inquiry into the influence which injections of 

 saliva might exercise on the development of the disease. 



Guinea-pigs rendered tuberculous by intra-peritoneal inoculation of 

 a culture of canine tuberculosis emulsified in sterilised water were 

 treated with parotid saliva collected aseptically from a horse. On the 

 ist September, i8g8, M. Cadiot commenced the treatment of a pre- 

 liminary group of eight guinea-pigs inoculated on August 14th, and of 

 a second group of eight guinea-pigs inoculated on the 31st August. 



In each series five subjects were treated. In three, sixteen to thirty- 

 two minims of saliva were injected into the peritoneum every two or 

 three days ; in the other two the injection was made hypodermically. 

 Three animals were reserved as controls. 



On the 22nd September one guinea-pig of the first group, which 

 had been inoculated eight times in the peritoneum, died. On autopsy 

 enormous tuberculous lesions were found in the liver, spleen, and 

 epiploon ; the lymphatic glands were enlarged, and numerous granu- 

 lations were seen in the lungs. 



A guinea-pig of the second group died on the 29th September 

 after the eleventh injection. It also showed tuberculous lesions in the 

 liver, spleen, epiploon, and lungs, though the lesions were much less 

 marked than in the first. 



A second animal of the first group, which had received 380 minims 

 of saliva in the peritoneum, died on the 30th September. The post- 



