6
station will be visited in order to allow of investigations being carried on there.
Unfortunately the disease usually runs a course of but a few hours, so that it is
impossible to get from the Laboratory to Roorkee after a case has been reported
in time to see it; but if in the course of the cold weather work is being carried
on at the Bareilly branch, it may then be possible to do so.
As it has been reported from South Africa that a fungus has been found
which will readily kill off swarms of locusts, steps have been taken to obtain
some of the material for the Laboratory, and it is hoped that it will shortly be
received and kept growing here ready to be sent out if required. Although
this pest is not so severe in India as in Africa, yet it at times causes great havoc,
and the method appears to be worthy of a trial.*
The preparation of tetanus anti-toxine has also been commenced, two
horses having been obtained for the purpose and the injections have been begun.
The process, however, takes several months to carry through, but the recent dis-
covery of its much more powerful curative value when it is injected directly
into the brain, over the previous method of its sub-cutaneous administration,
greatly enhances the value of the material, and it is hoped that it will be ready
for issue in a few months' time.
The testing of the spinal cords of dogs which are thought to have died of
hydrophobia and which may be forwarded to the Laboratory for that purpose is
being arranged for.
Preliminary Note on Rinderpest Experiments.
12. Brief resumé of recent work on the Subject.—During the last three
years a large amount of research work, with a view to discovering methods of
protective inoculation against rinderpest, has been carried out in South Africa,
with the result that several methods, differing more or less completely from
each other, have been discovered and put into practice in that country. Differ-
ences of opinion as to the value of these divers methods were inevitable, and
as, moreover, the conditions with regard to the prevalence and severity of
the disease in India are very different from those of South Africa, it has been
deemed necessary to test these methods carefully at the Muktesar Laboratory
and to apply the results obtained in actual outbreaks before reporting with
regard to what steps should be adopted to check the enormous loss of cattle
from this disease which annually occurs in India. At the same time some
new lines of inquiry have been opened out, although any great advance on the
discoveries recently made in South Africa as a result of several years' work
by numerous observers can hardly be expected. As it was not until January
1899, or four months ago, that these experiments were commenced, no definite
conclusions have as yet been arrived at, so only a brief outline of the work
that has so far been carried out can be given in this report, reserving for a
future occasion a full examination of the question.
In order to make the line of inquiry as clear as possible, it will be neces-
sary to briefly refer to the previous South African work, and to give the results
obtained there. It will be remembered that Professor Koch visited South
Africa in 1897 to investigate rinderpest, and in March of that year reported his
discovery of the bile method of inoculation against the disease, which was very
largely adopted and which he demonstrated at the Muktesar Laboratory in June
of the same year. These Indian experiments, however, were not of a conclusive
nature owing to the virus becoming so attenuated with after a few passages
through the cattle used, as to fail to reproduce the disease. Two other attempts
were subsequently made by Dr. Lingard to continue the experiments in July
1897 and in October of the same year, but with the same result, plain cattle
having been used. In the meanwhile the work which was being continued in
South Africa resulted in the discovery of other methods of protective inoculation
which have superseded the original method of Professor Koch, an examination
of which has been included in the plan of work of the experiments which are
now being carried out at Muktesar. A brief description of these various methods
must therefore be given, in order to allow of a clear understanding of the
experiments so far carried out in this Laboratory.
13. Koch's bile method.—The original method of Professor Koch, the
idea of which was obtained from the natives of South Africa, consisted in the
subcutaneous injection of 10 cubic centimetres of sweet green bile obtained
from an animal which was suffering from rinderpest and was between the sixth
*NOTE.— This fungus has now been received and will be sent out on receipt of telegraphic information of
the presence of locusts in any district.