348 



The Discovery of a Remedy for Malignant Jaundice in the Dog 

 and for Redivater in Cattle. 



By George H. F. Nuttall, MJD., Ph.D., Sc.D., F.E.S., Quick Professor of 

 Biology in the University of Cambridge ; and Seymour Hadwen, 

 D.V.Sci. (McGill) of the Department of Agriculture, Canada. 



(Received June 22,— Read June 24, 1909.) 



Judging from the literature relating to piroplasmosis, no drug is known 

 which exerts any curative action on either canine or bovine piroplasmosis. 

 The canine disease is exceedingly fatal, and, in certain localities, especially 

 in South Africa, it is almost impossible to keep dogs. On the other hand, the 

 disease in cattle causes enormous financial losses, especially in America, 

 Australia, and Africa, not only by causing a considerable mortality, but 

 also by producing a long-lasting anasmia in many of the affected animals. 



The discovery of a drug which will bring about a cure of piroplasmosis is 

 therefore a matter of practical importance. Our object in publishing this 

 communication is to announce the discovery of such a remedy. Whilst a 

 full description of our experiments will shortly be published in ' Parasitology,' 

 we desire to place the main facts on record. 



Canine Piroplasmosis. 



We have discovered that trypanblau and trypanrot are highly efficient 

 remedies in the treatment of canine piroplasmosis. The drugs exert a direct 

 and observable effect upon the parasites by causing the pyriform parasites to 

 quickly disappear ; in most cases causing the total disappearance of the 

 parasites from microscopic observation in the peripheral blood. The disap- 

 pearance of the parasite is usually temporary, since they may reappear in 

 small numbers after an interval of 9 to 12 days ; the treated dogs, as a rule, 

 show no symptoms and gradually progress towards complete recovery. In 

 our experience the treated dogs show little or no loss of weight ; this being in 

 marked contrast to what is usually observed in the dogs which chance to 

 recover naturally. 



Our experiments were carried out upon 20 dogs of various breeds and ages, 

 the majority being highly susceptible puppies. We experimented with a very 

 virulent strain of Piroplasma canis from Cape Colony. All of the 7 control 

 (untreated) dogs died of piroplasmosis : 6 died within 7 to 13 days, and 1 on 

 the 36th day after inoculation with virulent blood. 



The remaining dogs, 13 in number, were treated as follows : — 



