Vaccination against Anthrax. 
801 
inoculation. On J une 3 one of the vaccinated sheep died, but the 
veterinary surgeon who made the post-mortem ascribed its death to 
another cause than anthrax. 
Conclusive as these results may appear, they were not at the 
time sufficient to convince all the witnesses, for it was objected by 
some that the test would have been more crucial had the virulent 
material used been anthrax blood, instead of a cultivation contain- 
ing spores of the anthrax bacillus. A new experiment was therefore 
carried out, and on July 16 following the final inoculation was per- 
formed, the virulent material used in this case being half a syringe- 
ful of blood and spleen pulp from a sheep four hours dead of anthrax. 
The results were no less decisive than in the first case. By the third 
day, fifteen out of the sixteen non- vaccinated animals had suc- 
cumbed, while the vaccinated, nineteen in number, were in apparent 
health. 
As a result of these test experiments, protective inoculation with 
vaccin furnished by M. Pasteur was speedily adopted on a most 
extensive scale, and in the following year (1882), in the Department 
of the Eure et Loir, nearly 80,000 sheep, between 4,000 and 
5,000 cattle, and 500 horses were vaccinated. The loss from anthrax 
in the vaccinated flocks during the following twelve months was 0'45 
per cent. In some flocks a certain proportion of the sheep had been 
left unvaccinated, in order to afford the best possible means of 
comparison, since the vaccinated and non -vaccinated were alike 
subject to the same conditions of food, climate, &c. In these mixed 
flocks the death-rate among the non-vaccinated was 3‘9 per cent., 
while among the vaccinated it was only 04 per cent. In the cattle, 
the death-rate among the vaccinated was 0 - 24 per cent., as compared 
with an average mortality of 7’03 in previous years. As bearing 
upon the safety of the operation, M. Pasteur stated that 13,000 sheep, 
3,500 cattle, and twenty horses had been vaccinated without a single 
accident. Twelve of these had subsequently been tested with a 
virulent virus, and all had resisted the test. 
In occasional instances here and there in France the results of 
the inoculations were not quite so successful as those just summa- 
rised, for on some farms a number of the vaccinated animals perished 
from anthrax within a few days after the operation ; and in some 
instances a not inconsiderable proportion of the vaccinated animals 
were afterwards unable to stand the test with virulent anthrax 
blood or culture. Moreover, in some cases, animals that had been 
twice vaccinated died within the course of the following few months 
from natural anthrax. 
The publication of some of these unfortunate accidents and 
partial failures of the method appears to have caused some alarm 
among French agriculturists, for during the year 1883 the number 
of animals vaccinated was rather fewer than during the preceding 
year. During the following year, however (1884), the number of 
vaccinations again increased, and since then the vaccinations in 
France have each year been carried out on a most extensive scale. 
From 1882 to 1893, both inclusive, the number of sheep vaccinated 
