( 14 )
held in his possession the microbe of Rinderpest. I thought that if Dr.
Simpson had captured this germ, it would in all probability soon be easy to
prepare vaccine against Rinderpest with it. At the same time I was aware
that Dr. Simpson's experiments might possibly have been influenced by the
presence of natural Rinderpest in the cattle-sheds in which he worked.
168. I therefore wrote and asked Dr. Simpson if the experiments could be
performed under conditions which I would arrange, the result to be made public,
and it the experiments failed to show Rinderpest, he would pay Rs. 50
towards cost. To all this Dr. Simpson agreed at once.
169. The experiments with Dr. Simpson's germs referred to below, were
performed in his presence, but none of the control experiments were.
170. The results of the experiments which were carried out in his presence
disappointed Dr. Simpson, and he declared himself willing to pay Rs. 50 towards
the cost of the tost.
171 The subsequent controls were for my own satisfaction, but I am sure
Dr. Simpson would have been glad to follow them had he remained in the
country.
172. Five animals (B. 3, B. 5, B. 6, B. 7, and B. 8) were inoculated in
the jugular vein with Dr. Simpson's germ in large doses in his presence. All
reacted, 4 died and 1 recovered. The general symptoms were diarrhoea and
enteritis, but they failed to show the peculiarities of Rinderpest.
173. Six more animals were selected and treated with extremely large
deses of various material from B. 8 that had died; of these 2 died (B. 4 and
C. 6) and 4 recovered (B. 1, C. 4, C. 5, and C. 7.) B. 4's death was due to
septicœmia: he showed no signs of Rinderpest. The only sign of Rinderpest
shown by C. 6 was diarrhoea with blood before death, and he failed to show
the usual post-martem symptoms of Rinderpest. Those that recovered had not
shown the usual symptoms of Rinderpest.
174. Fourteen days after recovery they were injected with bond fide
Rinderpest blood, and all reacted:—B. 1, developed the usual symptoms of
Rinderpest and died. C. 4 and C 7 developed symptoms of a mild attack of
Rinderpest. C. 5's temperature rose to 104.2 on the fourth and fifth day, and
a subsequent injection of 12 c. c. m. of virulent blood on 6th November made
his temperature go steadily up from the 2nd to the 8th day, when it reached
106.2°F.
175. In the hands of Koch and others, it has been shown that Guinea pigs
and rabbits do not re-act to Rinderpest. I therefore suggested that some of
these animals should be tested with Dr. Simpson's germs. This was done on
the 27th May by his Assistant in our presence: 3 Guinea-pigs and 3 rabbits
were injected with various doses. Two Guinea-pigs and one rabbit died on the
28th and one more Guinea-pig died on the 29th. The symptoms were not
those of Rinderpest, and it appeared that the germs had conveyed some other
disease.
176. As a control on the above experiment, 6 rabbits and 6 guinea-pigs
were inoculated with extremely large doses of virulent rinderpest blood. One
guinea-pig died 34 days after inoculation of pneumonia. All the other animals
remained healthy.
177. The result of these experiments goes to show that Dr. Simpson's
germs are fatal to guinea-pigs and rabbits, and that extremely large doses of
virulent rinderpest blood are not.
178. As I was not convinced that Dr. Simpson's germs were those of
rinderpest, I did not proceed in this direction.
179. In the month of May an outbreak of Rinderpest was reported from
Munshiganj. I sent a veterinary assistant to investigate and to collect material
for experiments. Unfortunately it reached me in such a decomposed condition
that the experiments failed completely.
180. On the 25th June a bullock belonging to the Chitpore Municipality
was admitted at Belgatchia, suffering from Cattle plague and died.
181. With the bile removed from this animal, four calves, four bulls and
three bullocks were inoculated, according to Koch's method, each receiving
10 c.c.m. subcutaneously. The result went to prove that the operation was
perfectly harmless. The animals had a slight swelling at the seat of the
inoculation, but showed no sign of disease and fed and did their work as usual.