105 



important still economically whether it protects against 

 infection through the mouth and alimentary canal, the 

 usual mode of infection in the spontaneous anthrax of 

 the pastures these questions are not yet decisively 

 answered. Yet we have already some data, collected 

 largely by Pasteur on the one side, and by Koch on the 

 other. Boutet reports that in the department Eure-et- 

 Loire (where anthrax is especially prevalent, according to 

 Pasteur) the general mortality last year was three per cent. ; 

 while of 79,392 vaccinated animals only . 7 per cent, died ; 

 one herd of 2,308 vaccinated sheep lost only 8, less than 

 .4 per cent.; another of 1,659 unvaccinated animals ex- 

 posed to the same conditions lost 60 (3.6 percent.). 

 Nocard vaccinated in August, 1881, 380 sheep, reserving 

 140 for comparison ; during the following five months 

 4 of the former and 15 of the latter died of spontaneous 

 anthrax. According to these reports, therefore, the mor- 

 tality of the vaccinated is only about one- tenth that of the 

 unvaccinated animals, though it must be remembered 

 that this does not include the mortality from the vaccina- 

 tion itself. 



Other results are decidedly less favorable. Of 266 sheep 

 vaccinated in Packisch last spring by Pasteur's assist- 

 ant, Thuillier, there died between May and November, 

 of spontaneous anthrax, 4 ; of 243 unvaccinated kept for 

 comparison, 8. Cagny reported to the Paris Veterinary 

 Society the following observation : In 1881, 20 sheep 

 were vaccinated a la Pasteur ; in February, 1882, 10 

 more. They belonged to a herd of 250, 2 of which died 

 of spontaneous anthrax in May and June, 1882 ; it was 

 therefore deemed advisable to revaccinate, which was 

 done in July with Pasteur's stronger virus. Of the 20 

 animals vaccinated in 1881, none died of this inoculation ; 

 but of the 10 vaccinated only five months previously, 

 nine died ; of 4 non-vaccinated animals inoculated for 

 comparison at the same time, 3 died. Koch vaccinated 

 8 sheep after Pasteur's method, and then inoculated them 

 with virulent material ; one died. The remaining 7 had 

 therefore been inoculated with anthrax three times, 



5* 



