334 F QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Ocr., 1897. 
Preventive Inoculation for Tick Fever. 
By C. J. POUND, F.R.M.S., 
Director of Stock Institute. 
By carefully considering the following directions, anyone accustomed to work 
among cattle may be able to perform the necessary operations without personal 
instructions. The operator must be provided with the following necessary 
appliances :— 
1, Trocar with canula attached. The latter should be 3-inch in 
diameter. 
2. Syringe to hold 10 ¢.c., strong, and well fitted with extra needles. 
3. Two wide-mouth glass jars, to hold about 1 pint each. 
4. Two small wide-mouth jars, to hold about 2 ounces each. 
5. Twenty to thirty fowl-wing feathers, previously washed in weak 
carbolic solution, then clean water, and finally dried in the sun. 
6. Several pieces of clean linen or calico. 
The most suitable immune animal to take blood from, is a calf between 
six andtwelvye months old. The reason why young animals are preferred is 
that they are easily handled and managed, and in inoculating blood from a calf 
there is very little risk of introducing tuberculosis, which is seldom to be found 
in calves. 
The best way of operating is to throw the calf on its left side, place a 
strap around the base of its neck so as to compress the right jugular yein, 
which in coarse of a few minutes will become very much dilated or swollen by 
the blood coming from the animal’s head. A. safe precaution will be to flatten 
the hair on the skin where the trocar is to be used with a little solution, 
1 to 20 of carbolic acid: this removes any danger of introducing foreign 
matter into the vein of the animal which might produce blood-poisoning 
or an abscess under the skin. 
The calf is lying on the ground with its feet from the operator, who lays 
his left hand on the neck and gently holds the swollen vein between the fore- 
finger and the thumb close up to the strap to prevent the vein from shifting 
laterally. He then takes the trocar in his right hand, and with it in a vertical 
position steadily pierces the skin into the vein. Immediately the point is through 
the wall of the blood-vessel, the instrument is held ina slanting position and 
gently pressed further into the distended vein. He then withdraws the trocar 
with the right hand, the while holding the sheath or canula with his left, 
and keeping it well into the blood-vessel. If the vein has been successfully 
pierced, blood will flow copiously. If it does not flow, the operator returns the 
trocar into the sheath and gently withdraws both of them a very slight distance 
but not out of the wound, because at the first insertion the trocar may have 
been forced through the vein or on one side of it, which often happens in the 
case of young thick-necked bulls. However, as soon as the blood flows freely 
on the withdrawal of the trocar, it is caught in a perfectly clean wide-mouthed 
bottle. From an animal six months old, half-a-pint of blood may be taken, and 
as much as a pint from a yearling. In the summer time, when the flies are 
plentiful, a little tar should be placed on the wound before the calf is released. 
As soon as the requisite amount of blood is drawn, it should be well stirred for 
about five minutes with a whisk, formed of half-a-dozen wing feathers from a 
duck or fowl. At the end of that time, the whisk, when lifted out, will be 
