The Daily Telegraph. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1883.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3795, 13 September 1883, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1883.

The Sydney Morning Herald in a recent number has an article on the inoculation of rabbits with tuberculous matter. The subject has been much discussed in this colony, and indeed may be said to bo of immediate interest to every one. Experiments that have been made by Dr. Mackellar, in conjunction with Mr Willows, M.R.C.V.S.L., aro said to have proved the possibility of exterminating tho scourge by this means. The operation was performed on the 20th of April last, on two tamo rabbits, and although thoy were afterwards tended in tho most careful manner, everything being done to keep them alive, both steadily wasted away ; one lias just died, and the other is in the hist stage of consumption. The rabbit that died was found on examination to have had its whole system more or less diseased, and tho deposit of tubercle was marked in the lungs, heart, and kidneys. There seems to bo no reason for dobuting, after this, that rabbits may be killed by inoculation with tho disease in question ; and Mr Willows himself, in tho letter wherein he introduced the project to public notice about six months ago, gavo cvidonco as to the certainty that it would bo communicated hy the inoculated animals to others, and so spread death in the burrows far aud wide. In one caso he mentioned not only did a fine young doe die after inoculation, but seven young onos, brought forth after the operation, rliod also, and so did tho buck ; and internal deposition of tubercle was found in all of them. It is easy to perceive, in view of these facts, that inoculation would bo an effective method of checking the spread of the rabbit post. But Mr Willows has further pointed out that "tho infectious and contagious properties of the virus tuberculosis would be augmented by the contamination of burrows and other resorts of the rabbits with tho secretions and excretions of the diseased ones; and these rodents would be rendered more susceptible both from being brought directly in contact with germs of disease in the limited space thoy occupy, and from inspiring impure air (always a predisposing cause) resulting from the presence of disease germs and from the limited supply of oxygen which could reach the more distant and sinuous excavations."

The Sydney Morning Herald then goes on to remark that, before these means of dealing with the rabbit post are extensively resorted to, there arc other points besides its effectiveness to be considered, and the first of these is the unquestionable cruelty of the treatment. No one will be so squeamish as to deny the propriety of a policy of extermination. If the rabbits were allowed to increase without hindrance they would drive out the sheep or cattle, and reduce productive pastoral country to the condition of a desert. Wo have not begun to legislate on this subject a day too soon, nor aro the provisions of the law recently passed too stringent. But there are different ways of killing even noxious animals, and no one is justified oven in the destruction of rabbits 'in tho infliction of unnecessary suffering. When dogs or ferrets or poison are employed, or suffocation with di-sulphidc of carbon is resorted to, tho suffering may last for minutes or possibly for hours ; but, as Dr. Mackcllar's experiment shows, inoculated rabbits may linger on for months together and steadily waste away. Tho sight of cattle or sheep perishing by drought through tho negligence of thoir owners is sickening, but the destruction of rabbits by inoculating them with a wasting disease would imply something more than insensibility, it would be an act of deliberate cruelty.

The most important side of tho question, however, is that which directly affects ourselves. Do wo know enough of the conditions under which disease may spread from the lower animals to man to justify the experiment of introducing infectious disease amongst the rabbits that aro overrunning large tracts of country ? Mr Willows has been charged with proposing to introduce fresh centres of tubercular infection by inoculating rabbits upon a large scale, and he has met the charge by saying that it was untrue, for ho had always intended to get tlie tuberculous matter for inoculation from the domesticated animals in the rabbit-in-fested district. The reply,' however, is hardly satisfactory. Tho important question is not whether a fresh centre would bo introduced by the inoculation, but whether tho disease, beijig already present in a district, its introduction amongst tho rabbits infesting the district would tend to gfvo < a stronger hold there and to promoto its spread. Mr Willows himself, in a rccont letter, put tho same question in other words—"By introducing tuberculosis amongst thorns, do wo run any real rjsk of further propagating it amOilg«t oui domestic animals?" His answer is: ± think not,"if wo judiciously man m J v inoculations, and respect every fact a> it J which a knowledge of tho P^« 10 /°f >'> ; { morbid anatomy of tuberculosis ad . its general bearings has niado so no of us familiar." Can that bo ieas a satisfactory answer f ,

The whole issue is made to depend upon an "ii." The avoidance of risk is in fact made to hinge upon conditions which might rarely be complied with. But there is a further question, and this also we can put in Mr Willows'own words—" Can tuberculosis be conveyed from one animal to another after the vims or medium containivigitbecomesapparently devoid of moisture, or dried from natural causes f" Here again the question is followed by an answer. "Although this fact has been questionably decided in the affirmative, I think by only one individual, yet after a not inconsiderable experience, in which I have had frequent proof of the specific germ origin of disease, and also of tho fungoid forms of vegetable life, all the facts which have come under my observation, as well as the testimony TSf many able pathologists, at present justify me in saying emphatically, no." Notwithstanding the emphasis, it may well bo doubted whether this " no " in contradiction to the "yes" of oven one other authority is a suffici cut foundation to build upon. Would it bo wiso to infect hundreds of thousands of rabbits with tuberculosis, and to let their scattered bodies decompose, and tho dried virus, turned to dust, bo borne hither and thither hy the four winds of heaven, if we have not something like absolute certainty that in that condition it would be harmless to man and beast ? Should there bo any mistake in this matter, Aye might by adopting this expedient be sowing the seeds of disease broadcast.