76 Stable Management and the Prevention of Disease 



Inoculation. 



Mr. Evans refers, at the end of his report^ to the recent 

 researches in Europe, which show that animals may be pro- 

 tected from anthrax by inoculation with virus which has 

 been modified by cultivation under peculiar conditions. 



Inoculation, it seems to me, is the only means by which 

 there is any probability of the disease being entirely eradi- 

 cated from Government stables in India. 



Substance of Address of M. Pasteur. 



In the Veterinary Journal for September, 1881, there is 

 an editorial article upon the subject of inoculation, and a 

 report of the address of M. Pasteur at the International 

 Medical Congress, in London. It is well worth careful 

 study. 



M. Pasteur states that the virus of chicken cholera, or of 

 splenic fever (both being forms of anthrax), may be cultivated 

 in chicken broth for ever, and retain its full destructive 

 qualities, provided that the germs be protected from the air ; 

 but if exposed to it at a certain temperature they gradually 

 lose their fatal powers through the action of oxygen. The 

 longer they are exposed the less virulent they become, until 

 at last, though they continue to reproduce themselves, they 

 do not cause death when introduced into the systems of 

 animals. Yet they cause their respective diseases in a mild 

 form, and animals so affected are protected for a long period, 

 perhaps for ever, from the influence of the most virulent 

 germs. In other words, they are not susceptible to anthrax 

 any more than a vaccinated man is susceptible to small-pox. 



It is earnestly to be hoped that veterinary surgeons in 

 India will in future take the opportunities afforded by out- 

 breaks of Loodiana fever, to make experiments like those of 

 M. Pasteur. It is very probable that the virus may be 

 capable of the same alteration as that of chicken cholera and 

 splenic fever, if cultivated in a similar manner. 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



