542 REPORT—1905. 
Rinderpest has been known from time immemorial in Europe and Central Asia, 
and is an exceedingly fatal disease, killing 90 to 100 per cent. of the cattle 
attacked. 
The recent epidemic, according to some, originated in the Nile provinces, and 
slowly crept southwards, reaching the Transvaal in 1896, after a journey lasting 
some fifteen years. Great efforts were made to oppose its passage, but nothing 
seemed to avail. In parts of the country where there were few or no cattle the 
epidemic spread by means of the wild animals—particularly the buftalo—which 
have been exterminated in many places. 
Ten years ago the symptoms and contagious nature of this disease were well 
known, but nothing was known as to methods of prevention, and it is to the 
investigation of this epidemic in South Africa that the discovery of practical 
methods of immunising cattle, and in this way of stamping out the disease, is due. 
As soon as it was apparent that the epidemic was spreading into South Africa, 
all the Colonies made strenuous efforts to combat it. The Transvaal Government 
invoked the aid of the Pasteur Institute, and Messrs. Bordet and Danysz were 
sent out to discover some method of prevention. They worked near Pretoria, and 
were assisted by Dr. Theiler, then the Principal Veterinary Surgeon. Before they 
arrived on the scene the Natal Government had despatched Mr. Watkins-Pitchford, 
their Principal Veterinary Surgeon, to the Transvaal, where he also at first had 
Dr. Theiler as his colleague, and where he did some good pioneer work in the 
serum therapeutics of the disease. In the Cape Colony Dr. Hutcheon, the 
Principal Veterinary Surgeon, and Dr. Edington, the Government bacteriologist, 
were no less active. It is, however, to Professor Robert Koch, of Berlin, that 
the honour is undoubtedly due of first publishing a practical method of 
immunising cattle against Rinderpest. He arrived at Kimberley on December 5, 
1896, and in the incredibly short space of time of two months was able to report 
two methods of immunising, viz. by the injection of Rinderpest bile, and, 
secondly, by the injection of serum from immune animals. I have always 
thought that the discovery that the injection of bile taken from an animal dead of 
Rinderpest rendered cattle immune was particularly brilliant. Up to that time no 
one had dreamt that bile could possess such a quality. It is true that both 
Transvaal and Orange Free State Boers are said to have used a mixture of bile 
and blood from dead animals before Koch’s researches, and also that Semmer in 
1898 showed that serum might be used for protective purposes ; but still to Koch 
is due the credit of making these processes practical. After he left South Africa 
his work was continued by Kolle and Turner, who greatly improved the methods; 
and it is to them, and to the other workers mentioned above, that we owe the 
fact that Rinderpest has now lost its terrors. 
In the last recrudescence of this disease in the Transvaal, in 1904, Mr. Stewart 
Stockman, the Principal Veterinary Surgeon, and Dr. Theiler, thanks to the 
experience and knowledge gained during the last ten years, were enabled to stamp 
out the disease rapidly and completely. It is to them also that we owe our 
knowledge of the dangers of the intensive method of inoculation, much used in the 
past and due to Kolle and Turner, and the introduction of the fighting against 
the plague by the inoculation of the healthy cattle by injections of immune serum 
alone. 
In the Tsetse-fly Disease our advance in knowledge has been in regard to the 
causation of the disease, and not in its prevention; it is quite otherwise with 
Rinderpest. The contagion or cause of Rinderpest is absolutely unknown. We 
know it exists in the blood, nasal, mucous, and other secretions of the sick animal, 
as all these are infective, but no one has seen it. The smallest quantity of blood 
will give the disease if injected under the skin of a healthy animal. We also 
know that the contagium is not very resistant. Blood soon loses its virulence 
after it leaves the body, and the effect of drying or the addition of chemical 
preservatives, such as glycerine, act also injuriously to the contagium, whatever it 
may be. It evidently belongs to the ultra-visible sort of micro-organisms, as it is 
said to pass through a porcelain filter. 
How the contagium passes from the sick to the healthy is assumed to be by 
