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235. Research.—In accordance with the pressing recommendations of the
Advisory Committee of the Royal Society every effort has been made to relieve
the Imperial Bacteriologist from all unnecessary work in connection with
the preparation of sera, etc. By reorganising and adding to the staff he
has been so far relieved of executive work in this direction that he has placed
on record his acknowledgment that he can now devote the greater portion
of his time to research work. Indeed it has been possible for him to spend
the whole of the winter from November to March at the Branch laboratory at
Bareilly, leaving the work at Muktesar under the control of the Assistant Bac-
teriologist. The difficulties in the way of preparing serum at Muktesar are
very great and it scarcely seems fair to throw such heavy responsibility on the
shoulders of a junior officer, however good he may be, and I am not very well
satisfied with the arrangement; however, we shall see how it works. There-
search work of the year has been dealt with in detail in several papers which
have been forwarded for publication in the form of a Memoir.
236. The programme of research included the following subjects:—
I.—Anthrax.
II.—Hæmorrhagic Septicæmia.
III.—Trypanosomiasis.
The most important results arrived have been:—
237. Surra.—An epoch making advance is recorded in the drug treatment
of this previously absolutely fatal disease in equines. Captain Holmes is to be
congratulated on the successful adaptation of Laveran and Thiroux's method,
so successfully applied to the treatment of other forms of trypanosomiasis by
Thiroux and Teppaz. This method consists in the use of Atoxyl and Orpiment
and Orpiment alone, and Captain Holmes has also used a combination of Atoxyl,
Sodium Arsenite and Orpiment as well as Atoxyl and Arsenious Acid. There
are at. present under observation about 25 horses, ponies and mules treated by
these drugs which have remained free from trypanosomiasis for periods varying
from six to twelve months after cessation of treatment. None has shown a
return of Trypanosomes in the blood. Many of the animals were in an advanced
stage of the disease before treatment was commenced. The results of the
observations on this treatment justify the conclusion that a complete cure has
been effected and not merely a temporary tolerance of the parasites. The
treatment is simple, inexpensive and of short duration (3 weeks). The
animal rapidly regains condition and can be put to work shortly after the course
of treatment has been completed.
238. Hæmorrhagic Septicæmia.—The preparation of a dead vaccine which
it is claimed gives immunity for a period of two to three months and of an
Anti-serum which protects for about six weeks.
239. Charbon Symptomatique.—The preparation of a single vaccine in
pillule form which it is claimed gives an active and durable immunity with-
out risk of inoculation fatalities and the designing of a special injector for use
with the pillules.
240. Rinderpest.—The results of a number of experiments have established
definitely, that immunity results from (I) Single and increased doses of serum
alone, (II) serum and virus, (III) serum and contact with infected animals.
They further prove the very great value of the Anti-Rinderpest serum
and the method of prophylactic inoculations which have for some years
been carried out by the Civil Veterinary Department. The Imperial Bacteriolo-
gist states that the protection afforded by the use of serum alone is of compa-
ratively short duration, but that when animals so treated are exposed to natural
conditions of infection, as occurs in an out break, they contract a mild form of
the disease without necessarily evincing any clinical symptoms and thus acquire
an active and durable immunity against further attacks.