486 
Disinfection  in  Medicine. 
Am  Jour.  Pharm, 
Sept.,  1889. 
day  be  able  to  antagonize  the  cause  of  a  fever  by  chemical  means,  i.  e.r 
actually  cure  the  disease." 
The  author  then  goes  on  to  mention  M.  Gamaleia's  communication 
to  the  Academie  des  Sciences  of  Paris,  August  20,  1888.  He 
made  a  communication  to  the  following  effect.  Ordinary  cultures  of 
Asiatic  cholera  are  innocuous  when  injected  into  pigeons.  If,  how- 
ever, the  inoculation  is  made  into  a  guinea-pig,  the  microbe  acquires 
there  an  intense  virulence  for  pigeons,  and  kills  pigeons,  producing  a 
dry  cholera,  with  exfoliation  of  the  intestinal  epithelium.  After  the 
microbe  thus  rendered  virulent  has  been  passed  a  few  times  through 
pigeons,  its  virulence  becomes  such  that  one  or  two  drops  kills  every 
pigeon  into  which  it  is  injected  in  from  eight  to  twelve  hours.  "  It 
has  the  same  effect  on  guinea-pigs,  but  now  comes  a  startling  result. 
Koch  failed  to  give  cholera  by  inoculations  with  the  common  bacillus. 
Yet,  by  inoculating  a  pigeon  twice  with  an  ordinary  non- virulent 
culture  of  cholera,  it  was  rendered  absolutely  secure  from  infection  by 
the  virulent  blood  which  had  killed  every  unprotected  bird.  And 
this  was  not  all ;  for,  by  first  of  all  cultivating  the  virus  in  a  nutritive 
medium,  and  then  heating  it  to  120°  C.  for  twenty  minutes,  so  as 
absolutely  to  destroy  every  contained  microbe,  a  very  active  chemical 
substance  is  left  in  the  sterilized  culture,  which  in  large  doses  will  kill 
in  from  twenty  to  twenty- four  hours ;  but  in  small  successive  doses 
will  be  entirely  inoffensive  and  innocuous,  and  yet  give  absolute  immu- 
nity against  the  induction  of  cholera  by  even  large  doses  of  the  virulent 
blood." 
In  the  December  number  of  the  Annates  de  VInstitut  Pasteur,  for 
1887,  a  similar  immunity  is  claimed  to  have  been  obtained  by  purely 
chemical  vaccination  against  septicaemia  by  MM.  Roux  and  Chamber- 
land,  while  almost  at  the  same  time  Dr.  Salmon,  in  the  "Annual 
Report  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  of  the  United  States  of 
America,"  claims  to  have  given  pigeons  immunity  against  hog  cholera 
by  injections  of  sterilized  cultures  of  microbes  of  that  malady. 
The  protection  conferred  by  Pasteur's  inoculations  against  rabies  is 
now  known  to  be  a  chemical  action. 
"  Lastly,"  continues  Dr.  Carter,  "  for  yet  another  malady  and  by 
yet  another  method  has  the  same  principle  been  established.  The 
experimenter  this  time  was  Bouchard,  and  the  details  are  given  in  the 
Comptes  Rendus  de  PAcad&mie  des  Sciences  for  4th  June  of  the  pres- 
ent year.    The  method  was  as  follows :  A  series  of  animals  were 
