IV. 

 PKOTECTIVE INOCULATIONS. 



ANTHRAX. 



THE discovery of the anthrax bacillus by Davaine (1863), and the 

 demonstration of its etiological relation to the disease with which it is 

 associated, by the researches of Pasteur, Toussaint, Koch (1878-1881) 

 and other pioneers in this field of investigation, constitute the foun- 

 dation of our present knowledge of bacteriology and of the practical 

 results attained in protective inoculations and serum-therapy. And a 

 review of the literature relating to the anthrax bacillus would show, 

 in a most interesting manner, the successive steps by which we have 

 arrived at the important results which have gone so far toward estab- 

 lishing medicine upon a scientific basis. In the present volume, 

 however, we must confine our attention to those investigations which 

 relate directly to the subject in hand. 



Toussaint, a pioneer in researches relating to protective inocula- 

 tions, has a short paper in the Comptes-Rendm of the French Academy 

 'of Sciences of July 12th, 1880, entitled "Immunity from Anthrax 

 ("charbon") Acquired as a Result of Protective Inoculations." 



In this paper he announces his discovery of the important fact that 

 the anthrax bacillus does not form spores in the tissues or liquids of 

 the body of an infected animal, but multiplies alone by binary divi- 

 sion " sa multiplication sefait toujaurspar une division du mycelium." 



In the same communication he reports his success in conferring 

 immunity upon five sheep by means of protective inoculations, and 

 also upon four young dogs. We must therefore accord him the prior- 

 ity in the publication of experimental data demonstrating the practi- 

 cability of accomplishing this result. 



Toussaint does not give his method in the communication above 

 referred to, but the following quotation from a communication made 

 to the Academy of Sciences on March 19th, 1881, by Pasteur, shows 

 the method, and at the same time demonstrates the fact that Tous- 

 saint was the first to produce immunity by the use of sterilized cul- 

 tures. Pasteur says : 



" By inoculating sheep either with defibrinated blood from an animal 

 dead of anthrax, after nitration through several thicknesses of- paper, or 



