19 



may arise from other causes, this fluid can contain little or none 

 of "the proper virus, and must bo comparatively useless for the 

 purpose of inoculation. There is certainly, in the dry form of the 

 disease, a small quantity, and only a small quantity, of virus 

 almost always obtainable in the cavity of the chest near the lung ; 

 but unless the inoculator has had considerable experience in 

 selecting virus, it would be safer to use only what can be procured 

 from the lung in the stage already described. 



While in Europe I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. "Willems, 

 of Hasselt, Belgium, who was the first to propose inoculation for 

 pleuro-pneumonia, and I am indebted to him for a great deal 

 of valuable information as to the proper mode of inoculating. 

 He directs, in obtaining the right virus, "to take the serous 

 " matter which floats upon the liquid expressed from the 

 "infected lung in the^rs^ or second stage of the disease, as the virus 

 "most easily obtainable for inoculation." To obtain the virus in 

 this way, however, the temperature would require to be lower than 

 it generally is in Australia,»and the process would besides entail 

 great care and considerable delay. It will be found better, therefore, 

 to adopt the plan of filtering the virus recommended above, which 

 ensures its perfect purity and the total absence of anything that 

 would be deleterious in the shape of the fleshy part of the lung 

 or even of the blood — without incurring the delay and requiring 

 the care which the other process necessitates. 



(3.) — Preservation of the Virus. 



Too great care cannot, in a climate such as ours, be bestov/ed 

 in keeping the virus perfectly sound and inodorous, in order that 

 it may be thoroughly eflicacious. If exposed in the least to the 

 air in the summer season it will become putrid in less than twenty- 

 four hours, and it will do so in two or three days when carefully 

 corked and kept in a comparatively cool place. If it becomes 

 putrid it is useless ; for we know that medical students, in dis- 

 secting bodies — such as those in which death has resulted from 

 erysipelas — may do so with impunity, although their hands are 

 very unsound, after putridity has set in, while a short time after 

 death inoculation from such bodies of the slightest scratch would 

 be most dangerous, if not fatal. 



Many attempts have been made to preserve virus, but with 

 indifferent success ; and it appears very questionable whether the 

 articles sold as " Preserved virus or lymph," or under some more 

 high-flown appellation, be not worse than useless. It mifjht per- 

 haps be possible, by using comparatively large glass tubes, to pre- 

 serve virus in the same manner as vaccine lymph is saved — by 

 filling the glass tubes and hermetically sealing them. But this 

 mode has not yet been adopted, and practically speaking it is not 

 necessary ; for any owner requiring to inoculate his cattle before 

 the disease has shown itself among them, can always obtain a 

 supply of virus on its coming within a day's ride of his station, 



