Sept. 1, 1899.] Supplement to the ''Tropical Agriculturist.'" 
219 
again increased as the further absorption of the 
remaining bile went on, until on or before the 
tenth day of gall inoculation the animal could 
withstand the enormous dose of 10 c c. of virulent 
blood injected without contracting the disease. 
On the contrary, it was found that the injection 
of 10 c.c. of virulent blood fortified this immunity 
to a much higher degree- Bile is an aseptic fluid, 
which has the propertj'^ when injected into the 
intercellular tissue of passing very slowly into the 
circulation. In some instances the absorption of 
bile takes place quicker than others, hence the 
gall acts with varying intent-ity. Thus in accord- 
ance with Prof. Koch's view, slow absorption of 
rinderpest bile confers immunity on an animal ; 
quick absorption would cause rinderpest. This 
will depend on the amount of immunising sub- 
stances in the gall; where these immunising sub- 
stances are contained in the bile in the lesser 
quantities and not sufficient to modify or mitigate 
the action of the rinderpest organism, disease 
will supervene. Here, howe/er, we meet with 
individual diiferences." 
"Experience has taught us that, after bile 
inoculation of clean herds, several animals con- 
tract rinderpest from about the 8th day after the 
infection. The incubation period of rinderpest 
when acquired in the natural manner from infec- 
tion through the mouth and nose, will vary de- 
pending upon the amount of poison entering the 
system. When an animal is infected by mean? of 
an injection of virulent blood this period is short- 
er; where a large dose (10 c.c) is used the incu- 
bation period is mostly from 60 to 96 hours ; when 
a smaller dose (0.2 c c.) is injected, 6 to 7 days ; 
and when a still smaller dose is employed, the 
period is longer. In an animal inoculated with 
serum after the French method, the incubation 
period is prolonged, and the disease appears bet- 
ween the 8th and 10th day, in some cases even at 
a later period. Where glycerinated bile (Eding- 
ton's) is injected, which contains only the passive 
immunising substances, and after ten days 0"2 c.c. 
virulent blood, the incubation period is prolonged, 
and the animals in the majority of cases contract 
the disease on the 9th or 10th day after the blood 
injection, depending on the amount of immunis- 
ing substances ; where these substances in the 
glycerinated bile are too powerful, no outbreak of 
the disease will occur. 
If, now, the animals had been infected on the 
day of inoculation with bile, in the natural manner 
the disease would appear on the 5th day. The 
outbreak taking place so regularly on the 8th day 
(after bile inoculation) " conclusively proves that 
no infection was conveyed to the animals at the 
time of inoculation, and must have been subse- 
quently cnmmunicated to the animals by means 
of the rinderpest organism contained in the bile." 
After adducing very strong evidence in favour 
of the fiict that rinderpest bile does communicate 
the disease to healthy cattle, Drs. Krause propose, 
in order to minimise the loss arising from that, to 
give two inoculations instead of one. They 
say: — "To procure a long immunity, and at the 
same time to minimise the mortality after bile in- 
oculation, we recommended two successive bile 
inoculations in the following manner, and obtained 
exce.lent results. The first inoculation was to be 
made with bile older than three days, and not 
older than seven. Twelve to fourteen days after 
this inoculation the second inoculation followed, 
on condition that the animals showed no signs of 
disease. We found further by experiment that it 
was safest to use for the first inoculation 8 c.c, 
and for the second inoculation 15 to 20 c.c. of 
bile. Should, however, some of the animals sicken 
this second inoculation was postponed to the 
20th doy." 
AVhilst I thoroughly agree with Drs. Krause in 
their opinion with respect to the capability of 
certain fresh biles, under favouring conditions, to 
communicate rinderpest to healthy cattle, and ac- 
cept the explanation which they offer as probably 
being the correct one as to how tliis infection is 
effected by the bile, I differ from them as to the 
method in which they propose to overcome this 
drawback, and procure along immunity with 
safety. 
With respect to their recommendation to keep 
biles from three to seven days until their infective 
properties have passed off, this is impracticable for 
either a Veterinary Surgeon or a farmer situated 
in the country districts. Bile cannot be kept 
sweet and fit tor use for that period without ice, 
and it is both diiRcult and expensive to obtained 
ice in districts some distance from a railway. But 
I cannot understand why, under the circumstances, 
Drs. Krause should not use glycerinated bile for 
the first inoculation when they admit that it pos- 
sesses the same properties as pure bile which has 
been kept for four days and over, it is absolute- 
ly safe to use, and equally effective. 
With regard to their recommendation to use 
only 8 c.c. instead of 10 c.c. of Koch's bile for a 
first inoculation, — if this applies to bile which has 
been kept for four days and over, I do not see 
any necessity or advantage in reducing the dose, 
because a full dose of bile of that age would be 
safe to use. And if it refers to comparatively 
fresh biles which have been kept from 24 to 48 
hours, 1 regret to have to state that in our experi- 
ence we did not find the small dose any safer than 
the large one. We tried the method of twice in- 
oculating with bile as far back as the beginning 
of May 1897, but the results were not satisfac- 
tory. The disease appeared in the herds follow- 
ing inoculation with the smaller dose as frequent- 
ly as when the full dose was u^ed, it being the 
quality rather than the quantity of the bile to 
which we attributed this result : and when the 
disease did ap[)ear in a herd after being inoculat- 
ed with the smaller dose, it showed a greater ten- 
dency to spread through the herd, as the immuni- 
ty was not so strong as when the full dose of bile 
was injected at first ; and if a second inoculation 
with pure bile was resorted to before the disease 
had ceased in the herd, it intensified the disease 
and increased the mortality, while to wait until 
the disease had ceased in the herd, was to wait 
until the second inoculation was of no immediate 
practical value except to extend the immuni y. 
We had therefore to abandon that method and re- 
sort to the old dose of 10 c.c. for the first does, a 
second dose could then be injected at any conve- 
nient date if the ov»ner wished to further fortify 
his cattle. 
