Prevention of Splenic Fever, c&c, at the Broicn Institution. 303 
Experiment I. — A rabbit was inoculated in the thigh with 
a drop of the serous fluid which had been collected. No 
symptoms or local results followed. 
Experiment II. — A rabbit was inoculated with 2 minims of 
bloody fluid (chiefly blood) from the affected quarter. No 
symptoms, either local or general, ensued. 
Experiment III. — ^A guinea-pig was similarly inoculated with 
the blood. No effect was produced. 
At first sight these experiments seem to contradict the results 
obtained with the previous case. But I must point out a 
striking difference in the method employed, or rather in the 
material used. In the former case most of the results were 
obtained by inoculation with either the spleen or the blood 
from the general circulation, inoculation with which gave rise 
to the local phenomena of the disease. Moreover, all the fluids 
used contained bacteria of some form. In the present case 
only the local serum and blood were employed, the other fluids 
not being obtainable, and no bacteria could be discovered in 
the fluids inoculated. It would, therefore, appear probable that 
the specific virus does not reside in the local lesion, or is present 
in a far less active form there than elsewhere. And this again 
would appear to suggest that the affection of the quarter or 
limb is secondary to and not the cause of the general disease. 
I do not desire to speculate further on this subject, which 
can only be solved by further experiment. Two conclusions 
alone appear to me to be warranted. First, a scientific one, 
that the disease must be different from anthrax, which is so 
readily communicable to lower animals, especially rodents, that 
if this were a form of anthrax, some of our experiments must 
have produced that disease, instead of reproducing either the 
identical quarter-evil or no effect Avhatever. Second, a practical 
conclusion, that the danger of infection is as great or greater 
from the unaffected parts of the body as from the obviously 
affected and gangrenous quarter. The practice of burying or 
burning the obviously diseased part only, and taking no steps 
to destroy or disinfect the rest of the carcass, is therefore clearly 
fraught with danger to other animals. 
I reserve for a future occasion the description of the micro- 
scopical examination of sections of the hardened organs of 
animals dying of the original disease, and as a result of inocula- 
tion from it. I may, however, state that the principal results 
of this examination were to establish the identitv of the inocula- 
lated with the original disease, and to confirm the conclusions 
drawn from the naked-eye appearances, but beyond this they 
have not afforded any clue to the pathology of the disease. 
In connection with the experiments on this disease it is right 
