Inoculation for Pleuro-P neumonia in Cattle. 



381 



venes upon the inoculation — thus affording the animal a chance 

 of recovery at the expense of this member of its body. It is, 

 however, by no means unfrequent that amputation fails to arrest 

 the progress of mortification, of which one notable exception 

 was seen by me among the animals belonging to M. Willems' 

 father. The quantity of serous exudation employed never ex- 

 ceeds two or three drops, and it certainly is not a little remark- 

 able that such serious consequences should so often follow its 

 introduction into the system. The material is evidently morbific 

 in the extreme, and probably is either dead or possesses so 

 small an amount of vitality when used that it soon dies, and as 

 such gives rise to chemical action, ending in the speedy destruc- 

 tion of the tissues, more particularly in so lowly an organized 

 part as the tail. In very many cases, even when ulceration or 

 mortification does not occur, the inflammatory action runs so high 

 and the tail enlarges so much, that deep incisions, some three or 

 four inches long, have to be made to give relief to the engorged 

 tissues. These untoward results do not probably occur in more 

 than twelve or fifteen cases in every hundred, but they show how 

 important it is to adopt means to procure a milder and safer 

 material for inoculation than that obtained directly from the 

 lungs. Cases of this kind invariably produce great constitu- 

 tional disturbance and consequent emaciation, and call for long- 

 continued medical treatment. At the commencement of these 

 experiments some persons inoculated in the dewlap, and the 

 effects were far more destructive than those I have described. 

 In one instance in particular, the exudations of a gangrenous lung 

 being employed on eighteen animals^ ticelve out of the numhcr died. 



Much stress has been laid on the microscopic appearances of 

 the exudations obtained from the inoculated parts, in order to 

 show that peculiar corpuscules possessing a tremulous motion 

 are therein developed, and that these, most probably, are the 

 true agents of the communication of the special disease. The 

 instrument used at Hasselt by Dr. Willems and myself was very 

 inferior, and no dependence could be placed in its defining 

 powers ; and from what I have since observed I believe that none 

 but ordinary inflammatory products exist, and consequently that 

 no special corpuscules will be met with in these exudations. 



In bringing this Report to a conclusion I am desirous of adding 

 the statements of two or three persons with whom I had inter- 

 views, in order to prove how much has yet to be learned 

 respecting the value of inoculation, and the necessity also 

 which exists for the adoption of independent experiments. 

 M. Maris, veterinary surgeon of Hasselt, and one of the com- 

 mission appointed by the Government, says that he wants more 

 experience in the operation, as he is not satisfied with his 



