Prevention of Splenic Fever, ^'c, at the Broicn Institution. 275 
allied epidemic diseases, concerning the nature of which but 
little is known. 
In South Africa attention has recently been directed to the 
A'ery fatal disease of horses, known amongst the Boers as throat- 
sickness, Dikkip, or black tongue. Although presenting many 
analogies with some of the localised forms of anthrax, it appears 
to be distinct, inasmuch as true anthrax when affecting horses 
in the same or other regions is said to present different symptoms. 
And, as I hope to show, although there are very close analogies 
in the fungoid organism which is apparently the cause of the 
disease, there are also certain well-marked distinctions. In 
the present Report I propose to limit myself almost exclusively 
to the subject of the experimental investigations which have 
been made during the past year at the Brown Institution, re- 
ferring to other points only so far as may be necessary for the 
purpose of explanation. In a future Report I hope to deal with 
the more recent observations on the nature and mode of propar 
gation of anthrax, and the more minute description of the 
morbid anatomy of the several diseases which have formed the 
subject of investigation. 
Amongst the many points relating to anthrax which have 
received attention, the most important is that of the experimental 
inoculation of bovine animals with virus modified by trans- 
mission through the guinea-pig. Some preliminary experi- 
ments made by Mr. Duguid at the request of my predecessor 
Dr. Burdon Sanderson appeared to show, first, that when 
anthrax is communicated by inoculation to bovine animals 
through rodents, the animals so infected, although exhibiting 
severe symptoms, recover ; and, secondly, that such animals are 
less liable to future infection by the same process than others. 
These experiments I have repeated, varying the method 
employed ; and although in some respects the results are such 
as to modify the conclusions suggested by the experiments of 
Dr. Sanderson, they are nevertheless in striking confirmation 
of the general result, and afford grounds for hope that the con- 
tinuance of the experiments may serve to establish a prophylactic 
for the disease. Hitherto I have had no opportunity of sub- 
mitting an animal thus inoculated to the crucial test of 
subsequent exposure to contagion or inoculation from an 
original case of the disease in a bovine animal ; but I have done 
so from a sheep which died of the artificial disease, with a 
favourable result. 
I have also been engaged in studying the microscopic anatomy 
of the disease in various animals, with a view to discover the 
mode of diffusion of the poison, and its method of action in the 
T 2 
