SYNOPSIS OF CONTINENTAL VETERINARY JOURNALS. 79 
matter used was most carefully selected from various sources 
and introduced by various methods, and it destroyed indi¬ 
genous sheep and rabbits on first trial. If immunity is the 
attribute of Algerian sheep as imported it is essential to 
examine whether it is a congenital character, or acquired 
either from the native soil or during the journey necessary 
to their arrival in France. If this is a congenital character 
it will be important to accurately establish what beneficial 
results may be derived from it, as well with regard to the 
special bearing of this one point as to its general scientific 
applications. If it has been acquired it is of great import¬ 
ance to learn how it has been acquired, for by determining 
its causes we may be able to experimentally realise them, 
and thus confer immunity on our docks. 5 ’ The paper in 
the Journal de Medecine Vet er inair e for October and No¬ 
vember, 1879, gives the series of experiments, on which the 
learned professor bases his conclusions, in detail, and then 
continues : “ Except in the experiment of introduction of 
8,000,000,000 of Bacilli into the jugular, the subjects showed 
no appreciable disturbance of their general health ; never¬ 
theless, those inoculated by punctures through the skin pre¬ 
sented as local phenomena a more or less marked tume¬ 
faction of those lymphatic glands nearest to the seat of 
inoculation ; besides, as a general phenomenon, especially 
after the first inoculation , there was a certain elevation of 
the internal temperature taken at the rectum. In the 
experiment where a cubic centimetre of the charbonaceous 
blood was introduced into the veins the subjects exhibited 
marked disorder, which commenced immediately on injec¬ 
tion, and lasted about twenty hours. This was of a febrile 
character, the temperature rising from 40 6° to 43°. During 
the height of the fever not a single bacterium could be seen 
in the blood ; probably the disorder was due to a true toxic 
agent existing in the blood with the Bacilli. The fever may, 
however, have been due to the Bacteria becoming temporarily 
entangled in some of the capillaries before undergoing dis¬ 
integration.” The author next discusses the question—Why 
Algerian sheep are so unfitted for culture of Bacillus an- 
thracis? MM. Pasteur and Joubert have shown that by 
reducing the high temperature of fowls they may be ren¬ 
dered susceptible of reception of the charbon, but a sheep 
was kept in cold water and did not become affected after 
inoculation. Again, the temperature of sheep dying of 
charbon falls below 40°, the normal of the Algerian breed. 
The cause of immunity must, therefore, be sought in some 
other condition than high temperature. 
