EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES WITH THE MICROBES OF CHICKEN-CHOLERA. By Dr. Oscar Katz. Introduction. It will be remembered that Pasteur recommended, as a means for rabbit-extermination on a large scale, the disease commonly known under the name of cliolera des poioles, chicken-or fowl-cholera. The Royal Intercolonial Commission, appointed in April last year by the Australasian Governments to inquire into, and report upon, the schemes submitted for the extermination of rabbits in Australasia — a prize of £25,000 being offered for a successful remedy by the New South Wales Government — at once took the necessary steps to make itself acquainted with Pasteur's proposal. Being, however, dissatisfied with the information already to hand about the merits of this particular disease, or rather the microbes of this disease, as rabbit-exterminators, and considering the results of the experiments performed in France by Pasteur or under his direction, and of those by his delegates in Sydney, as unsatisfactory, it decided to have experiments of its own carried out. As chief expert officer to the Commission, I was entrusted with this work. A laboratory — intended also for the investigation of any other scheme that might be worthy of consideration — was built on an hitherto unoccupied islet, called Rodd Island, in Iron Cove (Leichhardt Bay), a western portion of Port Jackson. The little island, of solid sandstone, and covered here and there with scrub, was well adapted for the object in view. Its plateau was mostly formed of loose sandy soil. The laboratory, a substantial building 33
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