288 CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 



on dead vegetable matter. Whether this be true or not, the 

 vitality of the organism must be very tenacious, as it is well 

 known that certain pastures are always dangerous to cattle, but 

 more particularly after rain preceded by warm dry weather. 



It is most remarkable that preventive inoculation has not 

 succeeded in this country, although so successful on the Conti- 

 nent. Is it the fault of the operators, or what ? A reference to 

 experiments of Dr. Burdon Sanderson and Mr. Dnguid (see 

 below) ought to convince any one that the operation should be 

 further tested, and that the Government should encourage all 

 experiments calculated to increase the general welfare, instead 

 of throwing obstacles in the way. 



The local effects of inoculation of the skin with anthrax 

 blood is as follows : — In twenty-four hours there is redness of 

 the spot, with heat, swelling of the skin and subcutaneous tissue, 

 extending from a third of an inch to an inch in depth. 



The swelling increases in forty-eight hours to perhaps two 

 inches, and on the third day, if the animal survive, to several 

 inches ; the heat and redness being most intense at the in- 

 oculated spot. The process extends in the connective tissue, 

 particularly along the track of the lymphatics. In superficial 

 inoculations bacilli can be seen in every instance in twenty- 

 four hours, at a distance only of about one-fourth of an inch, 

 but their after extension is not proportionate to the extent of 

 the tumefaction, nor does the serum found in the swelling con- 

 tain many of them until after forty-eight hours, when great 

 quantities will be found in it ; when the virus is injected into 

 the subcutaneous tissue death may occur without bacilli being 

 found at the point of injection. 



INOCULATION FOR THE PREVENTION OF ANTHRAX. 



In 1878 it was discovered by Dr. Burdon Sanderson and Mr. 

 Duguid that cattle might be inoculated with splenic fever from a 

 guinea-pig, and though such inoculation caused the development 

 of serious symptoms, the animals did not die ; and in continuing 

 these experiments it was found that cattle once so inoculated re- 

 sisted the results of further inoculation, — that in fact they could 

 be thus rendered insusceptible to future attacks of splenic fever. 

 Dr. Greenfield, in making a series of experiments with the view 



