INOCULATION FOR PLEURO-PNEUMONI A . 
129 
To the Council of the Norfolk Chamber of Agriculture . 
First report of the experiments of the inoculation of cattle 
for pleuro-pneumonia in Norfolk, commenced in No- 
vember, 1869j by William Smith, M.R.C.V.S., Norwich. 
Having been requested to report to jmu the progress made 
in the inoculation of cattle for pleuro-pneumonia which I 
have been conducting, the following detailed statements and 
observations are respectfully submitted for your considera- 
tion. 
It is desirable to observe that as these experiments were all 
made on infected farms — indeed, in infected herds — they are 
open to objection, as at the time of operating, some of the 
animals, probably all that have taken it since the operation, 
may have been incubating the disease in the system, but this 
was an evil that could not, under existing circumstances, be 
avoided ; agriculturists are not proverbial for readily adopting 
anything novel, and perhaps they are right; difficulty was 
found in obtaining the owner’s consent to have the operation 
performed, even in infected herds, whilst in healthy ones, in 
no instance has the proposal to inoculate them met with 
success, although they were assured that it was highly im- 
probable and next to impossible that by this means pleuro- 
pneumonia would be introduced into their herds; but who 
can be surprised at this ? Individual exertion must be aided 
by a responsible body, and supplemented with means, if it 
be desired to thoroughly test the value of inoculation as a 
preventive of pleuro-pneumonia, and it must be done on a 
scale sufficiently comprehensive to enable us to form sound, 
practical, and definite opinions ; half doing things in medical 
as well as in most other matters, leads only to confusion and 
error. 
The subjoined details of the experiments follow each other 
in the order in which they were conducted, and were made 
with fresh lymph, selected from the lungs of animals suffer- 
ing from a mild type of pleuro-pneumonia, in which only 
one lung was involved. 
Experiment No. 1. — On November 1] th were inoculated in the 
tail, about three inches from the tip, eight Irish steers, at 
Griston, age 1 year, condition poor, unhealthy looking, regis- 
tering a very high internal heat ; in one the thermometer 
stood at 104°, and in others the reading was above 103°, as will 
be seen by reference to the table below. No local swelling or 
redness worth noticing followed the operation, or observable 
constitutional disturbance. 
Register of internal heat of body at the time of operating, 
