SERUM PROTEINS IN BULLS HEALTHY, RINDERPEST ATTACKED AND RECOVERED 61
tions of Howe [1922] who showed sometime ago that an increase in the globulin
content of a calf is often mainly due to various types of mild infection. Though
some of our results seemed at first to support this view (for example, Bulls
Nos. 994, 998 and 773 which lived) it was apparent after further experimentation
that a generalisation of this nature cannot be made. Many variations of a similar
type have been observed in the ratios of other protein fractions, and we have come
to the conclusion that none of these pre-existing ratios of protein fractions gives any
adequate idea of the immunological behaviour of these animals towards an attack
of rinderpest.
It is interesting, however, to consider at this point the peculiar fluctuations of
the different serum protein fractions, not only during the disease, but also for a
fairly long time after the process of recovery has set in. The fluctuations during
the course of the disease can, of course, be explained as due to the pathological
state of the animal. It is, however, surprising to find, as we have done in the case
of Bulls Nos. 900 and 927, very low and fluctuating values for some of the protein
fractions long after the animals had returned to an apparently healthy state. A
reason for this may be the after-effect of the period of inanition during the latter
part of the disease. This point is of importance in this investigation because, in
determining the pre-existing ratios of our healthy animals, no control could be kept
on the diets of these animals for any length of time prior to the beginning of this
experiment, the reason being that these animals are purchased from contractors
and it is possible that some of the serum protein fractions of the healthy animals
given in Table I may have given low values on this account. That inanition may
have an important effect on the serum protein fractions of healthy animals is evident
from the work of various authors. Thus Githens [1904] found that there occurred a
rise in the globulin fraction in dogs kept short of food especially affecting the fibri-
noglobulin and euglobulin. Glässner [1905] from his investigations on protein
changes of rabbits before and after immunisation with bacterial emulsions, bacterial
toxins, and proteid bodies, came to the conclusion that a rise in the globulin
fraction was only marked in those animals which had lost weight during immunisa-
tion and that the rise in the globulin fraction may be a secondary symptom depend-
ing on inanition. Moll [1906], however, in his experiments on fasting dogs and
rabbits observed no marked rise in the globulin fraction as observed previously by
Githens (loc cit.), but on the other hand, he noticed a fall of globulin in two cases.
He does not believe that the rise in globulins is an inanition effect though it is
possible that pure inanition may influence this phenomenon during immunisation.
Robertson (loc. cit.) found that during starvation the total protein content of the
blood serum rises and in the rabbit, ox, and horse starvation leads to an increase
in the proportion of albumin to globulin in the serum, while in the rat and dog,