Cattle Plague. 637 



camels in Asia and Africa the fatality proved as high as among 

 cattle. The Italian buffalo usually recovered after seven days 

 illness. 



Treatment. The therapeutic treatment of cattle affected with 

 cattle plague has been eminently unsatisfactory and is so certain 

 to become a means of extension of the disease that it is legally 

 prohibited in all countries, in which the plague has not been al- 

 lowed to become generally diffused. Where it has become general 

 in an unfenced country in which accordingly its permanence is 

 virtually ensured, it may be employed. 



Serumtherapy is advocated by Refik Bey. An animal is hyper- 

 immunized by repeated inoculations. His blood is then with- 

 drawn and the serum obtained from it is injected in a dose of 

 25 cc, subcutem, at a temperature of 104 F. The temperature 

 is taken from the 3d to the 5th day and if it does not at this time 

 rise above normal the treatment is ended. If still above normal 

 a second dose of 25 cc. is given. It is claimed that the serum is 

 harmless and may be safely given in a single dose of 50 cc. in 

 case it is impossible to keep watch of the animal for five days. 



Prevention by Immunization. Semmer attempted this by inocu- 

 lating cattle with virus which had been weakened by heat or by 

 passing it through the body of a Guinea pig. The results were, 

 however, far from perfect and even in Russia the method failed of 

 any wide acceptance. Koch and Edington in South Africa 

 practised extensive inoculations with a mixture of the virus in 

 bile. Still better results are claimed by Danyoz, Bordet and 

 Theiler in the Transvaal. These treated the animals by inject- 

 ing 25 cc. to 50 cc. of highly immunized blood, defibrinated, and 

 while the subjects were thus rendered temporarily insusceptible, 

 they were exposed to infection by contact with diseased animals. 



As with serumtherapy, measures of this kind are only per- 

 missible in a country in which cattle plague is already generally 

 diffused, and where there are no fences to limit the continued 

 diffusion of the infection. The preservation of the cattle 

 artificially infected until highly immunized, and again of the sick 

 cattle requisite to give the disease to the cattle operated on, and 

 finally of these last through the mild attacks that are to render 

 them immune, affords an endless number of loopholes for the 

 escape of contagion which would forbid the adoption of the 



