THE AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. G43 



breed influence is again strongly marked, 

 and the reactions of these various breeds 

 to preventive measures seem to differ as 

 widely. Such variation of susceptibility 

 is quite in accoi'd with well-recognised 

 but ill-understood principles in the com- 

 plex question of immunity, and as an in- 

 stance in this connection we might recall 

 that anthrax, a deadly disease of sheep 

 generally, is powerless against a certain 

 breed of Algerian sheep. 



We are, perhaps, not justified in con- 

 sidering that that the bile furnished by 

 an animal suffering from an acute and 

 virulent form of rinderpest is on that 

 account likely to contain greater quanti- 

 ties of the immunising principle than 

 those contained in the bile taken 

 from an animal succumbing to a 

 mild or more lengthy form of the 

 disease. In the rapid, or fulminating 

 form of the disease, such as T have ob- 

 served lately amongst young cattle in the 

 Orange River Colony, it is improbable 

 that the animal economy has time to 

 elaborate to any great degree the resistive 

 antitoxic principles upon which the value 

 of the bile so greatly depends. It seems 

 reasonable to suppose on the contrary that 

 by an acute invasion of the animal sys- 

 tem—causing rapid death without great 

 tissue changes (septicoemia)— the specific 

 organism is more likely to be found in 

 the bile in an actively infectious condi- 

 tion. This may possibly explain the frail 

 immunity obtained, and perhaps the con- 

 tagion produced, in some of those cases 

 in Natal in which bile was taken from 

 animals dying early in the course of the 

 malady or killed, according to Koch's 

 directions, from the sixth day ol the 

 disease. 



The fact that an animal eventually suc- 

 cumbs to a disease does not preclude the 

 development within its system of certain 

 Immunising principles, and we have seen 

 reason to believe that in some instances 

 this in;imunising or antitoxic principle is 

 present to a marked degree in the blood 

 of animals actually dying from the disease. 



In enteric fever in man the presence of 

 the so-called agglutinating principles 

 which are inseparable from the immu- 

 nising or i-esistive principles, have been 

 clearly shown to exist in the system as 

 early as the fourth day of the fever, long 

 before the crisis of the disease has been 



reached, and during the course of which 

 these specific properties gradually in- 

 crease. 



From our practical observation we know 

 that bile which has been taken from a 

 beast which has died after the disease has 

 run its usual course, is of greater value for 

 immunising purposes than bile which has 

 been abstracted prematurely. We have 

 also found that animals which have re- 

 covered partially and then suffered a re- 

 lapse ending in death, almost invariably 

 have, when opened, biles which are not 

 considered fit for use, being thick and 

 grumous, and generally of offensive smell. 

 Such galls, however, if appropriately 

 treated would, in all probability be found 

 to be of great immunising value. 



It is interesting to observe in this con- 

 nection a statement made by Dr. Rogers, 

 the l)acteriol)gist to the Indian Govern- 

 ment, to the effect that he experienced no 

 drawback to the use of f oui-smelling biles 

 when glycerinised. He says, in describ- 

 ing the inoculation of cattle by this 

 method :— "Again in three of the experi- 

 ments biles were used which were origin- 

 ally foul-smelling, while Edington advises 

 that only sweet-smelling biles should be 

 used. This was done on purpose because 

 a large proportion of the biles obtained 

 from these animals (hill cattle) are foul- 

 smelling, and unless they can be utilized 

 the method would have very little prac- 

 tical value, aad it is worthy of note that 

 two such biles used on the eighth day 

 after mixing with glycerine caused no 

 abcess formation, while, strange to say, it 

 was in one of these cases that the solitary 

 success was obtained." This is another 

 instance of the use of glycerine in treating 

 rinderpest bile, for with this experience 

 before us we may be induced to " give the 

 benefit of the doubt " to the many biles 

 the smell of which would cause hesitancy 

 as to fitness for use. 



The first Earl of Yarborough, about a cen- 

 tury ago, introduced an odd bat sensible 

 way of stopping the practice of sitting late over 

 the wine after dinner in the hunting season. At 

 a certain hour the stud-groom entered the 

 dining-room and announced that " the horses are 

 bedded up," when the whole party rose from 

 the table, forrhed a procession through the 

 stibles, and returned to coffee in the drawing- 

 room. 



