BACILLUS OF EAUSCHBRAXD. 301 



ceclematous fluid containing the bacilli ; that immunity, 

 however, was obtained with still greater certainty when 

 small quantities of the oedematous fluid (in the case of 

 cattle, 3 to 5 drops) were injected into the veins, with 

 such precautions that none of the material passed into 

 the subcutaneous tissue. At a later period another 

 method proved to be more trustworthy and more prac- 

 ticable : the virulent odematous fluid was dried quickly 

 at 32 to 35 C. ; the dried mass was rubbed up with 

 water and heated to 100 C., and this formed the first 

 vaccine material; another portion heated to 85 C. 

 formed the second vaccine. The dry vaccine, which can 

 be sent where required, is rubbed up before use with 

 100 parts of water, filtered, and injected to the amount 

 of 1 c.c. m. into the animals ; the second vaccine, which is 

 less attenuated, is injected from 9 to 14 days later than 

 the first. The inoculation is made in the case of cattle 

 at the tail, and in the case of sheep on the inner surface 

 of the thigh. The animals so inoculated ought to be 

 completely immune against artificial and natural infection 

 with virulent rauschbrand bacilli. The accuracy of these 

 statements has been confirmed by numerous experiments, 

 and it is probable that the protective inoculation against 

 rauschbrand may be practically and advantageously em- 

 ployed. Thus Strebel states that in the course of 1884, 

 in 7 cantons in Switzerland 2,200 cattle were vaccinated, 

 of which only a few developed a local tumour, from which 

 they recovered, and of which a much smaller percentage 

 died of rauschbrand acquired in the natural manner than 

 was the case with uninoculated cattle kept under the 

 same conditions. The experiments which have been 

 made with other protective inoculations seem, however, 

 to indicate that we must maintain a certain reserve with 

 regard to the first favourable reports of the results of 

 rauschbraud inoculations. 



Rauschbrand and the bacilli which cause it show great Differences 

 resemblance with malignant oedema and its cause, bacm 

 However, the oedema bacilli, as a rule, form longer tho , s . e of 

 threads, while the rauschbrand bacilli are always in the oedema. 

 form of isolated short rods ; further, from the endemic 



