DISTEMPER RESEARCH.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 80, 6 April 1926, Page 13

DISTEMPER RESEARCH.

The results of the scientific investigation into the causes and cure of can- • ine distemper—one of the most prevalent and most obscure diseases—which has been conducted by means of " the Field Distemper Fund," are published in a report and cicular letter issued by the Duke of Portland, president; Duke of Buccleuch, vice-president; and Colonel Lane-Fox, M.P., chairman. They say.—

" Our programme has involved entirely new methods of research and progress. The source of distemper has been proved to 'be an invisible extremely minute organism or virus capable of passing through niters that will hold back all ordinary microbes or bacteria. Though this virus cannot yet be grown or propagated in a test-tube, it has already been Etored by appropriate method's idr over a fortnight. Though our observers are not yet satisfied in every detail of their proof, they axe already well on the way towards bestowing immunity from distemper upon ferrets, animals which are particularly susceptible to the disease; and this, of course, is the first step towards giving immunity to dogs themselves." Isolated dog kennels and runs and a hospital for infected dogs have been erected at a cost of £10,000 at the farm premises of the National Institute for Medical Research, near Mill Hill, The sum estimated as the final cost of the research was £25,000, and the report states that the aim in view would be certain if every one who takes out a dog license would send a shilling. The address of the fund is Windsor House, Bream's Buildings, E.C. 4.