52 



DErARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



tioii, fiimijiation, wliitewasliing-, turning the cattle out for a period, the 



phicin 



;. 1>» 



p'- 



iu the stables, under the impression that they might destroy 



the putrid materials supposed to engender the disease, and so on. 



It so happened that the son of the senior member of the first firm of 

 distillors whose cattle had been affected in 1S3G had devoted himself to 

 medicine. Dr. Willems studied the luug disease with discrimination, 

 but even so late as 1850 he had not fully made up his mind as to the 

 essentially contagious character of pleuropneumonia. Dieterichs had 

 attempted the inoculation of the disease in order to prove its contagious 

 character, and had failed. Vix repeated the experiments, and obtained 

 results in the form of pneumonia, a pneumonia, says Dr. AVillems,* due 

 iu all probability to purulent infectiou. The French commission inocu- 

 lated cows with the blood, nasal discharge, and excrementitial fluids, in 

 order to test the contagious properties of pleuropneumonia. Dr. Wil- 

 lems had, moreover, observed that in his father's stables there had been 

 since 1836 over 500 animals that had suffered from pleuro-pneumonia, a 

 considerable number of which had recovered, and remained ever after 

 free from the disease. Yvart, Lafosse, Verheyen, and Petry had made 

 similar observations. These facts led Dr. Willems to institute a series 

 of experiments as to the possibility of communicating the disease by 

 inoculation, and the extent, if any, of the immunity thus secured to cat- 

 tle. 



Dr. Willems adopted the rational plan of performing experiments on 

 animals of different species. His first was as follows : 



Date. 



Material inoculated. 



Dec. 23, 1850. Pulmonary exudation 

 Feb. 10, 1851 



June 19, 1851 



July 16, 1851 



eb. 26, 1852 



Nasal discharges 



Intestinal tubercle squeezed in 



sirup. 

 Pulmonary exudation 



Do 



Do 



Do 



Do 



Do 



Do 



Pulmonary exudation 



Do 



Do 



Do 



Liquid from tlie lungs used to 

 inoculate my cattle. 



Animal inoculated. 



Three rabbits. 



Two rabbits. 

 One rabbit.. 



Twelve pea fowls 



Several chickens 



One dog 



Two goats 



One sheep.. 



One English pig 



Three Belgian pigs... 



One sheep 



One ram 



Oue dog 



Eight pea fowls 



("Two dogs 



■i Tliree Belgian pigs. 



[Three i)pa fowls 



Four hens 



Seat of inoculation. 



r Thigh 



Neclt..- 

 t Thorax. 



Nose 



Thigh... 



Thigh . 

 Thigh. 

 Tail . . . 

 Tail... 

 Tail . . . 

 Tail... 

 Tail... 

 Tail... 

 Tail... 

 Tail... 

 Tail... 

 Tail... 

 Tail... 

 Thigh. 

 Thigh 



Result. 



None. 

 None. 

 None. 

 None. 

 None. 



None. 

 None. 

 None. 

 None. 

 None. 

 None. 

 None. 

 None. 

 None. 

 None. 

 None. 

 None. 

 None. 

 None. 

 None. 



* M<5in<)ir<- snv l;i I'rripiiiiiiiKniic fipizoiWiiinc du GrosBdtail, par L. Willems, Docteur 

 en Medicine a Hasselt, lU. 



