VACCINE-THERAPY 107 



takes place from the navel after birth in these cases, one 

 must reasonably point out the short period which has 

 elapsed between parturition and the first manifestation of 

 organic disease in a distant joint. Moreover, in practice we 

 have ligatured the navel cord at birth with sterile catgut, 

 painted the stump with tincture of iodine and then with 

 collodion, and repeated the dressing daily, keeping the 

 animal under the most perfect hygienic surroundings 

 possible, and yet within a varying but usually short period 

 specific arthritis develops. In those cases the animals are 

 nearly always weakly at birth, and if they live they seldom 

 become valuable, being stunted in their growth, etc. 

 The majority, however, die from what appears to be a 

 pronounced septicaemia. 



Where joint-evil occurs through bacterial invasion of the 

 navel cord after birth, one usually finds an extended in- 

 cubation period, or at least an apparently extended period, 

 for one cannot state definitely when the navel stump may 

 become infected. It is reasonable, however, to presume 

 the older the animal becomes, the more the cord shrinks 

 and dries, the less likely one is to get bacterial growth and 

 infection from this source. 



Some navel cords appear to be more predisposed to act 

 as bacterial incubators than others ; those which are thick 

 and gelatinous at birth, with a more or less serous exudate 

 emanating from them continually, are more likely to lead to 

 joint-evil than small, dried-up, and attenuated cords. 



"With the class of cases which appear to be affected in 

 utero we must confess vaccine-therapy in our hands has 

 been of little or no service, and the reason for this seems 

 to be we have here a bacterial infection primarily affecting 

 the blood-stream — i.e., a typical septic infection. 



Where, however, the animal appears to have become 

 contaminated when two or three weeks old, provided the 

 bacteria causing the condition are isolated, and an autog- 

 enous vaccine made, good hopes, if the treatment is started 

 fairly early, of a cure may be anticipated. 



