218 
Supplement to the "tropical Agriculturist." [Sept. 1, 1899. 
their civilization was grotesquely recorded by the 
use of idiographic pnintiu^'^, and not by means of 
written laiiguage upja books or scrolls, sue!) line 
distinctions as botanical species are not possible 
Agave fibre was also u-wd to a limited extent by 
the ancient Peruvians, though wool and cotton 
were held in first esteem. In the burial mounds 
of the south-western United States the remains of 
fibres are frequently found, Agave and Yucca fibre 
being common. Eemaius of bast fibres are also 
found, but they have not been identified. The sub- 
ject is interesting, but it is not possible on these 
pages to give more than an outline, chiefly for the 
purpose of showing that the most valued of the 
commercial fibres of today were among the useful 
fibre species of the ancient world. 
RINDERPEST. 
D. HuTCHEON, Colonial Vetebinauy Surgeon, 
Cape Colony. 
(Continued-) 
Pure fresh bile should not be used in an in- 
fected herd, if any of the other inoculating mate- 
rials cm be obtained, as it tends to intensify the 
character of the disease in those already infected, 
and its immunising effect is too slowly developed 
to protect the healthy cattle against infection, if 
they are left in contact with those already sick. 
If no other means are available, however, the 
temperatures of the whole of the cattle in the 
infected herd should be carefully taken by the 
clinical thermometer, and only those whicli register 
a normal temperature should be inoculated with 
pure bile, the others should be separated from the 
inoculated lot at once, and carefully tended. If 
glycerine be obtained, the spare bile should be 
mixed with it in the proper proportions — one part 
of glycerine to two parts of bile. This mixture, 
nfter staTiding forty-eight hours, may be injected 
into the affected animals in large doses not only 
with safety, but with marked bonetit. 
A similar line of treatment should be adopted 
where Rinderpest appears amongst a herd of cattle 
which has been previously inoculated with bile. 
Much will depend, however, upon the length of 
time whch has elapsed since the previous bile in- 
oculation. In the large majority of instances that 
would now be nearly eighteen months, except in 
those herds in which it has for some special reason 
been repeated. Hence the amount of immunity 
remaining would in most instance be small, while 
in the remainder it would have practically passed 
off. It is impossible, at the present time, to form 
any estimate of the strength of the immunity 
which remains in any individual herd, as it varies 
80 much. In some bile-inoculated herds all im- 
munity appears to have passed off in a few months, 
while in others the immunity has been strong 
enough to resist natural infection after twelve 
months. As an example of the latter. Rinderpest 
appeard at Tafelberg Hall amongest the young 
calves which had not been inoculated, and four had 
died and several more were sick before the nature of 
the disease was discovered, or the affected animals 
removed from the rest of tlie herd. But although 
this occurred over thirteen months after the cattle 
were inoculated, the outbreak was confind to the 
calves ; not ft single previously inoculated animal 
contracted the infection. If such a herd had been 
re-inoculated with any kind of bile, pure or glyceri- 
naned, or even with serum, the inoculation would 
have got the credit of arresting the progress of the 
disease at once, whereas it was entirely due to the 
lasting immunity conferred by the previous bile 
inoculation. To quote an instance of an opposite 
character, the disease ap[.eared in a herd of cattle 
on a farm near Molteuo, about five months after 
being inoculated with Eoch's bile. The owner in- 
oculated all that were visibly sick with serum, but 
not in doses large enough to do any good, and the 
remainder he inoculated with pure bile, aft,er Koch, 
with the result that the serum did not save any of 
the visibly affected cattle, and the majority of 
those inoculated with bile, many of which would 
be already affected, also succumbed. In such a 
case if the whole herd had been inoculated with 
serum, giving large doses to all indicating the 
presence of fever, by arise of temperature, land 
the usual doses to the others, the probability is 
that those which were bad at tiie time of in- 
oculation would have died, but the others would 
have been protected. Similar results would 
have followed if the herd had been inoculated 
with glycerinated bile, for, as already remarked, 
glycerinated bile contains strongly curative as 
well as immunising properties. Veterinary 
Surgeon Armstrong discovered that fact as far 
back as September 1897- While in the district of 
Graaff-Reinet, Rinderpest appeared in a herd of 
cattle unexpectedly, and he could not procure 
serum in time to be of any use, so he injected 20 
c. c- of glycerinated bile direct into the jugular 
vein of the sick and apparently healthy alike, 
with marked beneficial effects ; only one animal 
died out of the twenty- four treated. Since thao 
date, the curative action of glycerinated bile has 
been repeatedly witnessed by farmers, as well as 
by different members of the Veterinary Staff. Its 
action in this respect issilimar to that of immunis- 
ing serum, the strength of the antidotal action 
varying in different samples of bile. 
the reasoti why glycerinated bile can be injec- 
ted into healthy animals vith perfect safety, and 
into sick animals with marked beneficial results, 
whereas fresh pure bile frequently communicates 
the disease to healthy cattle on inoculation, and if 
it is injected into animals already infected, " short- 
ens the period of incubation," and intensifies the 
attack — is explained as follows: — The addition of 
glycerine to the bile has the effect of destroying, 
or rendering inactive, the infective organisms of 
Rinderpest which are present in the bile, leaving 
the passive immunising substances uneffected. On 
the other hand, to quote Drs, J. W. and Otto C. 
H. Krause, vide South African Medical Journal, 
vol. vi., part 2, p. 29 : — "Pure fresh bile contains 
the Rinderpest organism, but its activity is res- 
trained by the presence of the immunising substan- 
ces in the bile and by the bile salts." Further on 
these authors quote a, conversation which one of 
them had with Dr. Koch respecting the way in 
which the bile of a Rinderpest animal acted. Prof. 
Koch's opinion is as follows : — "The bile is very 
gradually absorbed into the system of the animal, 
the minute doses of poison the system resisted 
forming a chemical protecting substance, which 
conferred a weak immunity, and which immunity 
