PHAGOCYTOSIS 45 



disease from which we wish to protect the offspring 

 immediately after birth. This method is applicable 

 to such diseases as '' joint ill " and " white scour " in 

 young animals. Where this method has been used, 

 it has been found highly effective in protecting young 

 animals against the two above-mentioned diseases. 



In the treatment of bacterial diseases, vaccine 

 therapy has been successful only in chronic and 

 more or less localised conditions. In septicemia, 

 the use of vaccines has not met with any beneficial 

 results. In those conditions w^here the lesions are 

 local, vaccine treatment is very often most successful. 

 The explanation of this is, that in local infections 

 the bacteria establish themselves at a particular spot 

 in the tissues which has little resistance — i.e., little 

 power of producing antibodies — and the injection of 

 a vaccine in some healthy distant situation may 

 stimulate the formation of such bodies elsewhere; 

 they may then be brought to the infected area by 

 the blood, provided there is a free supply of lymph 

 transuding into the affected part. 



In conclusion, I must point out that in order to 

 treat a disease successfully with either a serum or 

 vaccine, it is first necessary to correctly identify 

 the organism causing the disease. I am afraid that 

 in veterinary practice this fact has been sadly 

 neglected, the results obtained from this method of 

 treatment being often very poor and indifferent. 



