Oct, 1, 1902.] 
Supplement to the " Tropical Agriculturist." 
295 
attended to, comfortably sheltered from the hot 
sun in summer, and from the cold in winter, kept 
away from nn unlimited supply of water, and 
given nourishing gruel to diink, that a higher 
average of recoveries would follow than where 
a large number of different medicines are used, 
1 do not mean to infer that medicine is useless in 
Einderpest ; some may modify the symptoms and 
alleviate the suffering, but none of the medicinal 
remedies that I have tried, or heard of being used, 
appeared to exercise any very marked influence 
on the course or character of the disease. The 
Indian Cattle Plague Commission agreed that mild 
laxatives in tlie early stages of the disease did 
good, and Veterinary Surgeon Thacker, who is 
reported to have treated 2,541 cases of the disease 
with great success, always gave three ounces of 
finely divided sulphur in two quarts of gruel 
morning and evening, uniil some slight laxative 
effect was j reduced. 
"The principal methods of inoculation against 
Einderpest practised in South Africa are bile and 
serum. The former is used bt tb fresh and 
glyceriuated, and the latter in the form of pre- 
served serum, and as blood freshly drawn from a 
recovered animal. 
" Inoculation with pure bile, either obtained 
from an animal affected with Einderpest imme- 
diately after death, unless the duration of the 
disease has been unduly pre longed, or from an 
affected animal killed while in the Inst stage of 
collapse, which is usually about the sixtli or 
seventh day of the fever, or the tenth or twelfth 
day after artificial infection. This is KocKs 
method- The dose recommended is 10 c.c, injected 
into the cellular tissue under the loose skin of the 
dewlap, and well rubbed in. 
'' Koch's instructions were to use biles of a dark 
green colour witli a white froth, and it is generally 
acknowledged that these are the best, but ex- 
perience has sliowii that biles of all shades of 
colour, except those which are red from the pre- 
sence of blood, and those which are very thin and 
of a light yellow colour, may be used so long as 
they are clear and free from any putrid smell. 
'Animals which were injected with brownish 
green gall containing the Simpson bacillus in pure 
culture, and gall of a brown colour, containing 
both bacteria and streptococci, became immune 
without the occurrence of any accidents such as 
abscesses.' (Kohlstock.) 
"As the bile obtained from different animals 
may vary considerably in strength and immunis- 
ing properties, all the galls extracted at one time, 
after being kept separate f(T twelve hours to see 
whether they remain all right, should be mixed 
together, so as to render them as uniform in 
strength nnd character as possible. If practic- 
able bile should be used within from eighteen to 
thirty-six hours after it is drawn, unless it can be 
kept in ice, when it will keep sweet and effective 
for a much longer period ; but even under such 
conditions, it should not be kept over four days, as 
its immunising properties are liable to become 
modified when kept beyond that period. 
" Further experience indicates that the bile 
obtained from cattle which contracted the disease 
spontaneously, and is extracted immediately after 
death, is generally more reliable than bile obtained 
from cattle which are given the disease artificially, 
by the tubcutaneous injection of virulent blood. 
Hence smearing the muzzle and nostrils with 
infective material was considered a more satis- 
factory method of infecting animals for bile 
j^rodiiction. 
" In connection with this subject Dr. Eddington 
says in his Annual Eeport for 1897, page 67 : — 
' Tlmt according to the recent researches of Fraser, 
the bile of all animals has peculiar antitoxic 
virtues, and he suggests that the ingress of poison 
by the alimentary tract is attempted to be met 
with, and antagonised by the bile secretion, so 
that the giving of Einderpest to animal.s by the 
natural chnnnel may — and I think probably does 
— stimulate bile production. Further, where 
infection is made through the gastro-intestiual 
tract, the poison must, in the first instance, act 
through the portal vein ; while in subcutaneous 
infection the virus must be carried to the liver, 
for the most part along the branches of the 
hepatic arterj-, a most important difference, seeing 
that iti the one case the action proceeds with 
regard to the hepatic lobules centripetally, while 
in the other case it proceeds ceutrifugally." 
4^ 
GENEEAL ITEMS. 
In the account of a new edible tuber in the 
Agricvltural Gazette of Neiv South Wales occurs 
the following piissage : — "Its taste, when cooked, 
is very agreeable, resembling that of Japanese 
Crosue] cr salsify, while it is richer in alimentary 
equivalents than either of these legumes." 
Whether the word Japanese qualifies the term 
salsify, and if so, whether the plant is a legume, 
we cannot tell, but the vegetable onlinaiily known 
as salsify {Tragopogon porrif alius) belongs to 
the order Compositacae. 
As soon as tomato plants show signs of disease, 
they should be at once sprayed with Bordeaux 
mixture made up as follows : — Dissolve 4 lbs. blue- 
stone (sulphate of copper) in water (hot water it 
possible) after "pow dering" the bluestone, and mix 
thoroughly 4 to 6 lbs- of fresh quicklime with 
water : then mix the two and add 40 gallons 
of water to bring to the proper strength. 
The most commonly used colouring matter 
for dairy produce (cheese and butter) is the vege- 
table extract from Bixa orellana, known as 
" aunatto," which was so successfully manufac- 
tured in Ceylon by the late Messrs. Borron and 
VanStarrex of Crystal Hill Estate, Matale. Eefer- 
ring to annatto the Journal of the Board of Agri- 
culture says :— "This and other yellow colouring 
matters of vegetable origin, turmeric, saffron, &c., 
have generally been considered harmless in ih» 
quantities employed, but they are being gradually 
superseded by coal tar yellows, the action of 
which on the human system is not fully known. 
Butter from Holland; Australia and the United 
States is very frequently coloured with coal tar 
yellows. A large number of margarines are also 
so coloured. The coal tar yellow most frequently 
employed for dairy produce and margarines is 
