58 



NA TURE 



[November 17, 1898 



Ihowever, by means of the bile method — which was 

 originally introduced by Koch, and appears to induce 

 only a temporary though " active " immunity against the 

 disease — but by means of the use of a "serum." 



Drs. Turner and Kolle have, as already reported in 

 these columns, found that it is possible to treat rinder- 

 pest successfully with a serum taken from animals which 

 have already suffered from the disease produced either 

 artificially or naturally and reinforced artificially. As a 

 result of their investigations they are now in a position, 

 with the aid of this serum, to control the course of the 

 disease w hen artificially produced. As animals which have 

 suttered from the disease are immune for a very consider- 

 able period, and as an animal that passes through an 

 attack controlled by the serum is protected or " salted," 

 as it is termed, this method has been adopted very ex- 

 tensively for the purpose of protecting animals in at^'ected 

 and suspected districts, and it is probable that in time it 

 will oust the bile method completely.; especially as it 

 seems to be attended by fewer disadvantages than ac- 

 company the latter method, and can be carried out at less 

 cost and with less loss of life amongst the cattle. 



In working with the serum method in rinderpest it 

 is necessary to know as much about the serum used 

 as it is in the case of the treatment of diphtheria 

 with anti-diphtheric serum ; but one would imagine that 

 at the Cape, where such enormous financial interests 

 are concerned, there should be no difficulty in obtaining 

 pure serum, the value of which has been carefully 

 estimated, for the treatment of cattle suftering from 

 the earlier symptoms of rinderpest. The relative cost 

 would be slight even were it necessary to have a series 

 of stations from which serum might be obtained, and 

 taking into consideration the fact that this serum might 

 have to be thrown away periodically ; and one can 

 scarcely in-.agme that a method which is described as 

 being nearly perfect, should be allowed to remain unused 

 because there is some slight difficulty as regards the 

 supply of money and laboratory accommodation. In 

 ■connection with this part of the question, it may be inen- 

 tioned that it has been proved by experiment that the 

 serum remains quite active for at least seven months. 

 How much longer, still remains to be proved. 



It will be remembered that on a former occasion it was 

 pointed out that " it is useless to attempt to infect whole 

 herds which have been previously inoculated with bile, 

 because it does not seem possible to give all such 

 inoculated animals the disease simultaneously. Most of 

 the cattle will become sick after injection of virulent 

 blood, but many may remain unaffected, as the immunity 

 conferred by the bile is still effective and protects them, 

 and they will in consequence not become salted. In 

 these herds the most satisfactory course to pursue is for 

 the owner to obtain a sufficient supply of serum, and 

 inject the cattle as soon as they are observed to be sick, 

 or the thermometer indicates a rise of temperature. 

 Cattle already sick require a larger dose of serum than 

 those that are healthy, and in severe cases a second may 

 be necessary." This, however, as pointed out by the 

 Veterinary Surgeon, is only an indication that the 

 serum must be injected at a still earlier stage than has 

 hitherto been done, so that it is necessary to apply 

 the serum treatment to a herd of cattle which has 

 previously been inoculated with bile soon after the in- 

 jection of the virulent blood. Cattle that would have 

 reacted to the blood take the disease in a modified 

 form, and become salted ; whilst those that would not 

 react are no worse off for the addition of the serum, and 

 probably have a slight addition to their passive immunity. 

 The principal Veterinary Surgeon points out that " the 

 fact that the immunity conferred by bile is now wearing 

 off, makes it necessary for the farmers to take prompt 

 action when the disease appears in their herds, and the 

 fact that the bile immunity has ceased, gives greater 



NO. 1516. VOL. 59] 



prospects of success attending the application of the 

 serum as above indicated.' He also points out that 

 infection is not nearly so frequently carried from arti- 

 ficially infected herds as from those which take the 

 disease naturally. 



Bearing on this question, there is an interesting article, 

 in the August number of the Agricultural Journal and 

 Mining Record^ published in Natal. The injection of 

 bile, unless very carefully selected and preserved, appears ' 

 in many cases to have set up chronic abscesses, from the 

 description of which one would have said that they were 

 actinomycotic or discomycotic in character, though this 

 is a question which appears to deserve further investi- 

 gation. From the annual report of the Commissioner 

 of Agriculture for the year 1897, which appears in the 

 same journal, it is evident that the farmeis are now 

 thoroughly alive to the importance of using bile where 

 serum cannot be obtained, but of having recourse to 

 serum inoculation along with the injection of blood from 

 diseased animals, when this method can be properly 

 carried out. The only real drawback, and this is a veryi 

 slight one indeed, appears to be that in a few cases the! 

 injected blood appears to set up some form of " red ' 

 water," whilst in a few instances a malarial parasite may 

 be transmitted along with the blood. 



An idea of the expenditure on rinderpest for the year 1 

 1897 may be gathered from the fact that the outlay fori 

 fences, &c., was nearly 170,000/. .A very small proportion! 

 of this, added to the laboratory and veterinary outlay, 

 would enable the department to cope with this disease 

 in future, and to save the Colony an enormous sum, both 

 directly and indirectly. Mr. Watkins Pitchford, in his 

 report, states that where the departmental instructions 

 for the use of the serum have been adhered to, good 

 " and often brilliant results have repeatedly been 

 achieved," and that he is right in his conjecture is very 

 evident from the fact that when the serum is given in 

 definite quantity on one side and rinderpest blood on the 

 other, but simultaneously, a reaction is invariably set up 

 in an unsalted animal ; and even when this reaction is not 

 very severe, the nature of the disease is so well defined 

 and the results so successful that the animal is perfectly 

 salted for some time against natural infection, and 

 frequently against the injection of rinderpest blood : the 

 severest test to which the method can be put. He believes 

 thoroughly in the permanent immunisation of the herds 

 as a means of stamping out rinderpest : but immunis- 

 ation with bile, he believes, would fail, although it may 

 be useful as a temporary measure where serum cannot 

 be obtained. It must be remembered, however, that the 

 immunisation of the first animal must as a rule be through 

 the use of bile. He is strongly in favour of maintaining 

 a trustworthy supply of serum for the cases as they may 

 appear, and for the immunisation of any stock in herds 

 which have already passed through the disease, but in 

 which the immunity is still not quite sufficient. Those 

 who are most intimately acquainted with the history of 

 rinderpest, and of the recent work on serum-therapy in 

 connection with this disease, are now satisfied that the 

 extinction of rinderpest amongst Cape cattle is already 

 practically accomplished. 



NOTES. 



O.N Friday last, November II, the Chemical Society gave a 

 banquet in honour of six of its Past-Presidents who had been 

 for over half a century Fellows of the Society. The occasion 

 was the more noteworthy that these eminent chemists— Gilbert, 

 Frankland, Odling, Abel, Williamson, and Gladstone — are in 

 many cases ranked among those whose teaching has most 

 deeply influenced chemical science. As M. Friedel said : 

 " They form the finest phalanx of the fathers of chemistry 



