242 OMENTAL PLAGUE chap. 



results do not touch the question of specific antitoxins, 

 these being different from lysins or germicidal substances ; 

 it is quite possible that such specific antitoxins may have 

 been present in the blood of the prepared animals, anti- 

 toxins, that is, which could be utilised for therapeutic 

 purposes, such as recommended by Yersin, Calmette, and 

 others. 



After collecting evidence on the subject, the Indian 

 Plague Commission have expressed the view (Report, vol. 

 v.) that the agglutination test for purposes of diagnosis is 

 not of sufficiently reliable kind, and a similar view has been 

 expressed by Dr. Simpson in his Treatise on Plague. 



Nevertheless, I am inclined to think, from the large 

 number of observations which I have made, that under 

 certain conditions of experimentation the agglutination 

 test is of value, and a similar view has also been published 

 in Dr. Chalmers' Report on Plague in Glasgow, in 1900. 



Recently Captain Holmes of the Indian Veterinary 

 Service has made a number of experiments in my 

 laboratory in the same direction. Guinea-pigs and rats, 

 which had been previously protected by injection of 

 my new organ prophylactic, were tested with virulent 

 culture of B. pestis. They had been found immune 

 against plague, and several weeks later their blood was 

 subjected to the agglutination test on culture of B. pestis. 

 The proportion of blood serum and emulsion of B. pestis 

 was 1 : 1 and 1 : 2. Whereas the blood serum of normal 

 guinea-pigs and normal rats gave invariably a negative 

 result, the blood serum of both the guinea-pigs and the 

 rats which had survived the plague test gave striking and 

 unmistakable positive results. Although the dilution 



