Emphysematous Anthrax. 193 



punctured with a fine trochar or needle, (sterilized), within two 

 inches of the tip and in a downward direction and the instrument 

 is moved slightly from side to side so as to form a small sac, and 

 is then withdrawn. The sterilized nozzle of the hypodermic 

 syringe is now inserted in the opening" and a few drops of the 

 virus injected into the sac. When the nozzle has been withdrawn 

 the thumb may be placed on the external orifice and the end of 

 the tail manipulated to diffuse the virus in the connective tissue. 

 This is usually followed by an insignificant swelling, and a slight 

 rise of temperature. Should the swelling exceed the size of a 

 duck's egg or if others appear higher up on the tail, they may be 

 freely scarified and covered with a carbolic acid bandage. Or the 

 tail may be amputated above the highest swelling and the stump 

 treated with antiseptics. 



6th. The virus prepared by the Pasteur institutes, that of Arlo- 

 ing, Cornevin and Thomas, is the most extensively employed- 

 Forty grammes of the diseased muscle are dried rapidly at 32 C 

 (90 F. ) and triturated in 80 grammes of water. This is divided 

 in 12 equal parts and put on plates in two thermostats, six at 

 ioo° C. (212 F.) and six at 85 C. (185 F.) where they are 

 kept for six hours, when it forms a dry, brownish powder. One 

 tenth of a gramme (i}4 gr.) of this powder is dissolved in five 

 grammes of distilled or boiled water and will furnish ten doses. 

 The animal to be protected is first injected in the tip of the tail or 

 elsewhere with the virus prepared at ioo° C, and ten days later 

 with that prepared at 85 C. 



By the use of this method in hundreds of thousands of animals 

 on infected lands the mortality has been reduced to less than one 

 tenth of its former amount. It is attended b} r the one danger 

 which is not always duly appreciated, that unless its use is 

 restricted to herds on ground that is already infected, it endang- 

 ers the infection of new districts. The spores are not absolutel} r 

 sterilized at 85 C. Arloing and Cornevin and later, Nocard and 

 Roux have shown that the addition of lactic acid to the liquid 

 which has been weakened for inoculation, restores it to its former 

 virulence, making it a most deadly agent. Galtier says that the 

 virus weakened by heating to ioo° C. for seven hours until it will 

 no longer kill a mature Guinea pig, will still kill a new born Guinea 

 pig and acquire all its original virulence in the act. Also that the 

 13 



