108 CLINICAL BACTERIOLOGY AND 



Before the writer gave vaccine - therapy the serious 

 consideration he now does, he obtained considerable relief 

 in cases where the joint or joints were greatly distended 

 with turbulent-looking synovia, etc., by aspirating them, 

 and giving the fluid to the patient per oram, believing in this 

 manner the patient elaborated its own protective vaccine. 

 Certainly in some cases the animal often made a good 

 recovery, and, to say the least, aspirating the joint relieved 

 internal pressure, thereby reducing the painful condition of 

 the joint, which in such young animals so often kills by 

 exhaustion alone. Moreover, we found, if the joint was 

 aspirated moderately early in the course of the disease, one 

 was not so liable to get organic destruction within the 

 joint itself; therefore the consequent anchylosis following 

 upon this condition was considerably reduced, and a better 

 future usefulness of the patient assured. This was, no 

 doubt, due to the fact that the synovia was laden with 

 active bacteria or their products, which in themselves 

 possess an irritating effect upon the synovial membranes 

 and articular surfaces, causing cell proliferation, cell death, 

 rarefying ostitis, anclrvlosis of the joint, and consequent 

 destruction of its free-moving capacity. 



In those cases where the outset of the disease takes 

 place soon after parturition, running a rapid course with 

 great prostration of the patient, giving strong suggestions 

 of a septicaemic condition, little by way of treatment can 

 be done. Lignieres inclines to the belief this condition 

 is due to the coccobacillus, in which case his vaccine 

 (polyvalent) may do good; but of this Ave have no ex- 

 perience. 



Considering the ubiquity of the coccobacillus, it is just 

 possible that this bacterium is the primary factor in the 

 causation of joint-evil, and that other bacteria present are 

 more or less accidental and secondary. In like manner, it 

 appears, human tuberculosis claims its many victims, not so 

 much to the specific bacilli of tubercle itself, but to the 

 secondary invasion of streptococci, staphylococci, Micro- 



