May 25, 1899] 
WATORE 
gi 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
LONDON. 
Royal Society, April 20.—Some further Remarks on 
Red-water or Texas Fever. By Alexander Edington, M.B., 
F.R.S.E., Director of the Bacteriological Institute, Cape 
Colony. Communicated by Dr. Gill, F.R.S. 
Since my communication! to the Royal Society of London, 
by Prof. Thomas R. Frazer, I have been able to obtain valuable 
additional evidence as to the communicability of the disease by 
the use of blood derived from animals which have been either 
recovered from the sickness for a very considerable time, or 
which have been inoculated many months previously to the date 
on which their blood has been used. 
On December 8, 1898, I withdrew some blood from animal 
No. 18, which has been continuously under observation since it 
was inoculated on December 22, 1897. After defibrinating the 
blood, 20 c.c. was used to inoculate a young ox (No. 54) by 
intravenous injection. On the. following day, a sharp rise of 
temperature occurred, which reached to 106°6 F. On the fol- 
lowing morning it was observed to have fallen to 99°°8 F. 
Three days later the temperature was again over 104° F., but 
fell previous to the next morning. From this time onward an 
erratic course of temperature was observed, and on the twenty- 
fifth day, subsequent to inoculation, it was seen to be ill; 
refused food, but had no definite symptoms of ‘‘red-water.” 
Three days later it died. The blood on examination was seen 
to contain the spherical forms of the parasite. 
On post-mortem examination, the bladder and urine were 
quite normal. The liver was not enlarged, but was somewhat 
discoloured in patches, and the biliary ducts were distended with 
bile. The bile was much altered, being stringy and of a 
greenish-yellow colour. The spleen was normal in size and 
consistence. The kidneys were enlarged, and the pelves were 
filled up by a yellowish gelatinous exudation. The cortex was 
somewhat congested, but there was no evidence of any true in- 
flammatory change. The general muscles were pale in colour, 
and there was slight evidence of jaundice. This experiment 
‘serves to show that an animal which has been inoculated with 
infected blood, while it may not develop much illness asa re- 
sult of it, is really infected and, moreover, its blood, if drawn 
as late as a year subsequently, is yet so infective that an_in- 
travenous injection of it, into susceptible animals, will certainly 
infect, and may even kill, although after a somewhat extended 
period of time. 
Very important corroboration of this is furnished by the ex- 
perience of inoculation for red-water, which has lately been 
adopted in the Cape Colony. Four animals which were im- 
mune to red-water (three by reason of having had the disease 
and recovered, and one by being born and reared on per- 
manently infected veld) were sent from Fort Beaufort to Queens- 
town to be used by the veterinary surgeon there for inoculation 
purposes. The animals to be used for inoculation had been 
‘* fortified,” z.e. re-inoculated with virulent blood, seven weeks 
previously. 
Twenty animals were inoculated with defibrinated blood from 
one animal, the doses used being 10 to 20 c.c., according to 
1 The conclusions arrived at in that communication (received June 6 
1898) were as follows :— 
1. The blood of animals, themselves healthy, from a red-water area is 
dangerous if inoculated into an animal which suffers coincidentally from 
another disease. 
2. That the blood of animals suffering from mild or modified red-water 
may be safely used to inoculate a healthy animal subcutaneously, but is 
dangerous when injected into a vein. 
3. That the subcutaneous inoculation of mild or modified red-water 
blood conveys a mild form of the disease, and since the blood of such an 
animal is virulent when injected into a vein in another animal, it is safely 
to be inferred that the animal suffering from the mild form becomes more or 
less immunised or “‘ salted.” 
On these grounds, I would suggest a method of protective inoculation 
against red-water in the following manner. Having procured a healthy 
animal from a red-water area or one which is known to have been “‘ salted,” 
inoculate it by injecting 5 c.c. of red-water blood into the jugular vein and 
5 c.c. subcutaneously. In cases where the operator is unable to attempt 
the vein inoculation, I would recommend the subcutaneous inoculation of 
5 c.c. in four different sites. 
Allow at least twenty-eight days to elapse, and if any degree of illness is 
recognised, the blood of this animal may be used, after being defibrinated, 
to inoculate healthy cattle. For such inoculation only 5 c.c. should be 
injected into small animals, and not more than ro c.c. into larger. 
Seeing, however, that the presence of other maladies renders such a 
proceeding unsafe, I would recommend that it should only be practised 
during the autumn or winter, when the veld diseases are, as a rule, in 
abeyance, and in no case when any epidemic disease is in the near 
neighbourhood. 
NO. 1543, VOL. 60] 
age. All had a febrile reaction and some slight symptoms of 
the sickness, but easily recovered. From one of the other of 
the four animals blood was taken and used to inoculate seven 
head, giving doses of oto 15 c.c. These also all had a reaction, 
but made good recovery. 
On November 1, the four animals were re-inoculated with 
virulent red-water blood, and in each case 5 c.c. was injected 
intravenously and 10 c.c. subcutaneously. Twenty-nine days 
later they were bled. With this blood two lots of cattle were 
inoculated. 
One lot consisted of 107 animals which had not ever been ex- 
posed to red-water infection. The doses used were increased 
beyond those which I had recommended, namely, 10 to 25 c.c. 
were used, according to age. Of these animals no less than 
seventeen died of characteristic red-water. The remainder 
made a good recovery. 
The second lot consisted of fifty-three head of cattle, all of 
which with one exception (an imported animal) had been born 
and reared on red-water veld. The imported animal was the 
only one which showed any signs of reaction, but it made a good 
recovery. 
This experience has sufficed to show that it is not always safe 
to exceed the doses which I have recommended, unless the 
animals which have been used for withdrawing blood have been 
untouched for at least a considerable number of months. 
I have been able, with the co-operation of several farmers, to 
carry out experiments by which inoculated cattle have been 
fully exposed to infection at later dates. In May 1898, I in- 
oculated ten head of old cattle with blood from an animal which 
had been inoculated, six months previously, with virulent blood. 
These cattle were immediately removed from the Institute, 
and later sent to an infected area in company with ten head of 
young animals which were uninoculated, but, as is commonly 
known in this Colony, are not so liable to death from this 
disease as are older animals. Of the young stock all have been 
infected by exposure in the veld, and three have died. Of the 
older, more susceptible, animals not one has shown the slightest 
signs of illness, and the cows have given birth to healthy calves. 
Mr. J. H. Webber had twenty-eight head of Fish River cattle 
inoculated on November 7, 1898, and subsequently had them 
removed to his farm, which is well known to be one of the worst 
infested areas in the eastern province. Previous experience has 
shown that if clean cattle are placed there they become very 
quickly affected with the disease. On December 5, one died 
from gall-sickness, but, with this exception, all have done very 
well, and are at this date in perfect health. 
This method of inoculation has proved so satisfactory to the 
farmers themselves that it is being very generally adopted, and 
the farmers have petitioned the Government to arrange for an 
inoculating station being placed at Graham’s Town, so that 
clean cattle coming from clean Karroo areas for transmission to 
the coast may be inoculated previous to entering the infested 
belt. 
April 27.—‘‘ Data for the Problem of Evolution in Man. 
I. A First Study of the Variability and Correlation of the 
Hand.” By Miss M. A. Whiteley, B.Sc., and Karl Pearson, 
F.R.S. 
In a more purely theoretical discussion of the influence of 
natural selection on the variability and correlation of species, 
which one of the present writers hopes shortly to publish, a num- 
ber of theorems are proved which it is desirable to illustrate 
numerically. But the quantitative measures of the variability 
and correlation hitherto published are comparatively few in 
number, especially when, as in the present case, we desire 
to have their values for a number of local races of the same 
species. When we have once realised that neither variability 
nor correlation are constant for local races but are modified in 
a determinate manner by natural selection and, perhaps, by 
use, and further that their differences are the key to the problem 
of how selection has differentiated local races, then the im- 
portance of putting on record all the quantitative measures 
we can possibly ascertain of variability and correlation becomes 
apparent. 
This first study deals only with one character of the hand in 
one sex and one race. A wider range of material on the 
skeleton of the hand in another local race is already being dealt 
with. But while the correlation of the anatomically simple 
parts of the hand is of very great importance, it does not follow 
that the complex members of the living hand may not be equally, 
or even more, significant when we have to deal with fitness for 
