4
19. Testing anti-rinderpest serum on hill bulls by the "serum alone"
method.-As the question with regard to the period during which hill cattle
may receive protection against rinderpest for, when subcutaneously injected
with varying doses of anti-rinderpest serum, had not been definitely settled,
this opportunity was utilized to determine it, after quantities of 30, 60 and 90
c. c. followed later by inoculations with virulent hill blood in those animals
which survived. Six hill bulls were selected and two each received the
above-mentioned quantities irrespective of body weight on 27th January 1904.
All the animals exhibited the pyroplasma in their circulations in a latent
form.
(i) The injection of varying doses of serum only, 30 to 90 c. c. into hill
animals which exhibited a species of pyroplasma in their blood, may bring
about depressing conditions which act as stimulants to the organisms in ques-
tion, and the animals may succumb to their action.
(ii) A dose of 30 c. c. of anti-rinderpest serum in the same class of
animals and in the presence of a pyroplasma is insufficient to confer a passive
immunity even for a period of 13 days. But a dose of 60 c. c. would appear
to be sufficient to bring about a partial protection after an interval of 26 days.
20. Quinine as a curative or preventive in Bovine Rinderpest.—Regarding
a vaunted cure of rinderpest by repeated doses of quinine, experiments were
carried on during July and August amongst young and old hill animals,
varying from 1 to 8 years of age. The period of incubation occupied three
and-a-half days from the time of inoculation until the initial rise of tempera-
ture, and at this stage of the disease the first dose of quinine was administered
and followed every morning and evening during the course of the malady.
In some instances 60 grains were given twice a day, in others 120 grains morning
and evening. The results obtained clearly showed that quinine is powerless
to reduce the temperature or to mitigate the course of the symptoms of
rinderpest in the most susceptible breed of cattle in this country. Further,
pathological lesions, observed post mortem (for all the animals died after the
free administration of quinine per oz.), were undistinguishable from the changes
exhibited by the untreated control animals which passed through the different
stages of the malady and succumbed.
21. Surra in Camels.—Of the three camels, the subjects of Surra, kept
under observation during a portion of 1903, two succumbed during the rains
to Surra and pyroplasmosis combined, while the third survived, but exhibits
at times the organisms of the two diseases. As anticipated, the acute form of
the disease is passing, evidenced by the prolonged periods of intermissions
which now occur. It will be of interest to observe whether the trypanosoma
gradually and entirely disappears from the circulation. In the absolutely
fatal form of disease in equines, the usual length of time elapsing between the
first day of the disease and death is 20 to 56 days, but the equine inoculated
on 4th March 1903 with camel Surra is still alive and in fair condition 435
days after inoculation.
The life history of the camel trypanosoma has been worked out and will
be published separately in the scientific journals. Further, a paper has been
published on the "Giant Trypanosoma" discovered in the blood of bovines—
Centralblatt für Bakteriologie Originale, Bd. XXXV, No. 2, dated 30th
November 1903, of which a copy is herewith submitted.
22. Dourine—In last year's Annual Report, paragraph 70, I stated that
a large amount of research work had been carried on and would be continued
during 1903-04 until definite results had been obtained. I have now submitted
to Government a " Report on Dourine in different breeds of Equines, together
with an account of Vesicular Exanthema and Pyroplasmosis which occurred as
complications," and in addition 16 bromide enlargements selected from a large
number of photographs depicting various symptoms and stages of the disease.
Duplicate copies of the bromide enlargements have been supplied to the
Principal of the Veterinary College, Lahore, while other copies are in prepara-
tion for use at the Bengal and Bombay Colleges.
23. Pyroplasmosis.—During the past twelve months, a new form of pyro-
plasma has been discovered in man and a variety of species of animals. It
would appear that man and animals alike all present the same species of