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TEE AORI C U LT U BAL JOURNAL. 



System of Minimisation and (3) The 

 Serum System, and these are capable of 

 division again into many methods grafted 

 upon the systems as devised originally by 

 the earlier workers with rinderpest in 

 South Africa. 



As the method of inoculation with bile 

 is at present being widely adopted in 

 places where an adequate supply of serum 

 is unobtainable, it will be of interest to lay 

 before the reader the various modifications 

 of Professor Koch's original method. 



As we remember, Koch's directions 

 were to the effect that bile was to be taken 

 from animals suffering from rinderpest 

 from the sixth to eighth day of the disease. 

 The actual wording of his instructions 

 directed the selection of " an animal, pre- 

 ferably a large one, on the sixth or seventh 

 day afterthe first rise of temperature, or the 

 fourth or fifth day of visible symptoms." 

 The directions go on to state that this 

 bile " may be kept for a few days " if 

 necessary, that it should be green, sweet- 

 smelling, and without sediment, and that 

 all biles which were not of a green colour 

 should be rejected. Of this fluid 10 c.c.m. 

 were to be injected into the dewlap of the 

 animal to be protected. Professor Koch 

 asserted that thus an immunity would be 

 established on the tenth day at latest suffi- 

 ciently powerful to resist an injection of 

 40 c.c.m. of rinderpest blood a month 

 afterwards. The local result of such in- 

 oculation would be merely a hard, some- 

 what painful swelling, the size of a man's 

 fist, which would gradually disappear in 

 the course of a few weeks. Such, briefly, 

 were the instructions issued by the origi- 

 nator of the method, which was applied, 

 on the lines as set down, to hundreds of 

 thousands of animals. 



With the extensive application of the 

 process, however, certain disadvantages, 

 or, rather, opportunities for improvement, 

 suggested themselves to certain workers 

 with the disease. 



It was stated that by the use of this 

 method the disease became actually intro- 

 duced into the herd which it was desired 

 to protect. Koch, in one of his experi- 

 ments, noted that the disease broke out 

 in a herd treated by the above method 

 six days after inoculation, and that of four 

 animals which showed symptoms of the 

 disease three succuml)ed to it. He sug- 

 gests that the herd was infected during 



the operation, and not by reason of-- it. 

 The question, however, as to whether 

 rinderpest bile is capable of producing 

 the disease in a herd inoculated with it is 

 a very vexed one, and round this point 

 heated controversies have been waged in 

 other places than in Natal. Koch himself 

 stated to the Veterinary assistants sent 

 from Natal to Kimberley to learn his 

 newly-discovered method that bile taken 

 according to the directions could not pro- 

 duce the disease. He further showed 

 that the admixture of equal parts of bile 

 and virulent blood would not produce the 

 disease when introduced into the system 

 of a susceptible animal. 



It is proved that rinderpest bile can 

 destroy the virus contained in blood which 

 has been mixed with it, and it would, 

 therefore, seem reasonable to suppose that 

 it could in a like manner deal with any 

 virulent principle contained in its own 

 substance, or, in other words, if the 

 specific organism contained in the blood 

 of rinderpest was destroyed by admixture 

 with rinderpest bile, how could the same 

 organism be supposed to exist in an acting 

 infectious state in the bile itself ? In 

 arguing upon this inhibitive or restrain- 

 ing power of rinderpest bile, Koch went 

 so far as to suggest that " bile even from 

 quite healthy cattle" coitld so modify 

 the virulence of rinderpest blood that a 

 useful vaccine could be produced thereby. 



These facts seem to prove clearly that 

 Professor Koch held the view that rinder- 

 pest could not be produced by rinderpest 

 bile, and on the strength of his dictum to 

 that effect, bile inoculation was permitted 

 and encouraged (wherever facilities were 

 possible for obtaining such bile) as he 

 directed suitable. 



Let us glance at the views entertained 

 by those workers with the disease who 

 have been in a position to gather statistics 

 from extended personal observation. 



Dr. Turner, the present Medical Officer 

 of Health for the Transvaal, stated in his 

 address at the International Rinderpest 

 Conference at Pretoria, " he was fully 

 convinced that the gall could not cause 

 the rinderpest " in an inoculated animal, 

 and, further, that " an animal injected 

 with gall is no more able to spread the 

 rinderpest than a child inoculated with 

 vaccine is able to spread the small-pox," 

 although later, the same authority is re- 



