Rocky Mountain husbandman. [volume] (Diamond City, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1881-09-29
TQIhe Anulhy gard.
IN0CuLATION OF FOWL CHOLERA

medical profession abroad who have visited
London during the international Congress
is M. Pasteur, whose researches into micro
scopic life. promise such important results
to science.
Not the least striking among them is his
theory of the cholera "microbes." Cholera,
he says, is the result of certain parasites"
which he calls microbes, and by inoculating
the person with this parasitic virus, he de-
cares immunity from the disease may be
assured. .H,
The microscopic parasite in question finds,
he says, in the body of the animal certain
substances which it exhal,sts or destroys,
'either by working them up for its own
nourishment and increase, or by consuming
them with oxygen, which it borrows from
the blood" If, therefore, he argues, these
microbes" be admitted in sufficient in
stallments gradually to dispasture the feed
ing grounds, each succeeding batch finds
less and less to feed on, until at last there is
absolutely none of their natural food left at
all, and the body may then be crowded with
any number of parasites at will with GER
tainty Of security, inasmuch as the micro
bes die of hunger as soon as they are intro
duced
Putting his theory to the test Of practice,
he AYERS that he has met with success-not.
in the case Of human patients, but fowls
and has arrived at the fact that inocnlation
with cholera virus completely protects the
subject trotii future attacks. He put togeth-
er eighty fowls, none Of which, as he salts
fed himself, had ever had the cholera, and,
dividing them into tour sets of twenties,
submitted each batch to different test.
The first score of unfortunates were inocn.
lated with the cholera poison in the most
virulent form obtainable, and the result was
the death of the whole batch in a very short
space of time. Some of the poison was then
diluted to very faint strength, and the
second twenty inoculated with it. They
suffered slightly, as if from suppressed
form of the disease, but recovered, and when
thoroughly convalescent were again inocu-
lated, but this time with the most virulent
article; yet out Of the twenty, eight did not
die. The third lot were then subjected to
the milderfluid twice, at intervals OF week.
and when quite we'll to the deadlier form,
the result now being only five deaths. The
fourth batch, the lucky twenty, were finally
brought up tor experiment, and having
been inoculated four times at regular inter-
walls with the preparatory ..mixture," were
all given the cholera in its worst possible
form. Not one died. On the contrary, the
cocks among the number crowed as Justify
ss ever on the morning after the ceremony,
and the whole community went about their
business in apparently the most perfect
health, with all their accustomed vivacity
and appetites uHimpared. They have lived
happily and heartily ever since, and in spite
OF another '.seyere attack, artifcially adj
ministered, are to-day as healthy and cheer
full a lot of poultry rs any one could wish to
see. They are, in fact, cholera-proof. and
can cluck defiance at the king of evils.
These results are certainly remarkable
side by side are forty fowls, twenty of which
have just been given the cholera without
previous incubation and twenty have been
artificially protected. The hours pass, and
in the one coop bird after bird falls down
stricken with fatal malady; its legs refuse
to support the body, as it struggles to get
up on its feet; the punctured muscle awells
up prodigieusly; intense coma supervenes
and one by one all the twenty die. In the
next coop the hours pass unmarked by any
change; the birds feed and squabble as If
nothing had occurred, and as night falls they
take their place on the roost, and tucking
their heads under their wings go comforta-
bly, to sleep. Examined next morning the
punctures that admitted the terrible virus
showed no trace OF poison, and the muscles
are as healthy as ever, the success of the ex-
pertinent being compile. AS such it must
indeed be accepted for, as far as intorma-
ton is yet available, there seems no reason
for doubling that the tests were carefully
applied under conditions that preclude all
grounds of suspicion as to the results OBJ