3
(12) When the dry N. P. obtained from rinderpest bile is made
soluble in weak sodium carbonate solution and mixed in certain proportions
with virulent rinderpest blood and allowed to stand for a certain period in
vitro, it has the power of completely neutralizing the contagium of this disease.
(13) Bovines (plains) and buffaloes (plains and hill), injected subcu¬
taneously with varying quantities of N. P. (made soluble in weak rinderpest
bile) equivalent to the amount of N. P. found in the biles of hill cattle which
succumbed to rinderpest on the 4th, 5th, and 6th days of disease, were found
when tested 10 days later with virulent blood, to succumb or recover according
to the amount of N. P. they respectively received.
4. Results of experiments with rinderpest bile and its N. P.— (1) An
active immunity, which in most cases only commences to be developed on the
5th day following the injection of bile, can only be brought about when the
contagium of rinderpest is present in an active form in the injected bile.
(2) A passive immunity commences immediately after the subcutaneous
injection of rinderpest bile, and is brought about by the action of the contained
N. P. and Lecithin ; the quantities of these bodies in the injected bile alone
determine the degree and length of time during which the passive immunity
will persist.
(3) A rinderpest sixth day bile which has been kept for some days and
has had glycerine or other chemicals added to it for the purpose of keeping it
aseptic, can never on subcutaneous injection into a susceptible animal,
whatever quantity be administered, confer anything more than a transitory
passive immunity.
(4) Of 235 samples of rinderpest bile withdrawn from the gall-bladder
of bovines with due antiseptic precautions during the 3rd to the 9th day of
the disease—and cultures made in each instance—78 or 33.19 per cent. re-
mained sterile, while in 175 or 66.81 per cent. of the cultures varying amounts
of bacterial growths made their appearance.
(5) When rinderpest and normal biles are drawn into sterilized flasks
direct from the gall-bladders of diseased or healthy bovines, with due antiseptic
precautions—samples of the bile taken at the time of collection and after
varying periods for the purpose of estimating the N. P. present, it will be
found in the majority of instances that there is a gradual diminution of the
contained N. P. as time advances due to the consumption of the proteid by the
micro-organisms present in the different samples of bile submitted to examin-
ation.
(6) Susceptible animals injected subcutaneously with a fresh and powerful
sixth day rinderpest bile acquired an active immunity lasting from three to
five months. The same breed of animals injected with the same quantity of
bile but previously passed through a Pasteur-Chamberlain filter acquire an
evanescent immunity passive in character, which lasts for a short period only.
Animals subcutaneously injected with the 6th day bile or from the filtrate
obtained under pressure from the second mentioned bile, from which in both
instances all trace of N. P. has been removed acquire no protection whatsoever
and on being inoculated with 0.50 c. c. of rinderpest blood succumb as quickly
to the disease as an unprotected or susceptible control. Whereas animals
injected with the material remaining inside the filter acquire an active
protection.
(7) In no instance have hill bovines, buffaloes, or goats shown symptoms
of rinderpest when injected subcutaneously with fresh bile of a rinderpest
animal withdrawn from the gall-bladder on the 3rd, 4th, or 5th day of the
disease.
(8) Hill cattle subcutaneously injected with quantities varying from 10
to 188 c. c. of sweet, green rinderpest bile taken on the 6th and 7th day of the
disease respectively, succumbed to well marked rinderpest when inoculated
with 0.5 c. c. virulent blood, ten full days after the date of the injection of
bile. When larger doses than 180 c.c. were injected, death occurred within
a few days, preceded by symptoms of poisoning, the most marked being tetanic
movements of the limbs.
(9) Rinderpest bile utilized in 10 c. c. doses before the 5th or 6th day
of the disease rarely confers immunity. The contagium of rinderpest only
effects an entrance into the bile in the gall-bladder on the 5th or 6th day of