In this connection the following statistics, published by Dr. Jalzer, of the Mülhaus Hospital, are of interest regarding the mortality from diphtheria before and after the introduction and application of diphtheria anti-toxin. The death-rate from this disease, writes Dr. Jalzer, which in 1892 and 1893 was fully 50 per cent., fell in 1895 to 38·5 per cent., in 1896 to 28·8 per cent., in 1897 to 16 per cent., to 20 per cent. in 1898, 15·15 per cent. in 1899, and 18·75 per cent. in 1900. So far the efforts which have been made to mitigate _human_ suffering have attracted most attention; but it will be remembered that Pasteur, before he commenced the study of hydrophobia, had already won his laurels in combating disease in the victory he gained over anthrax, the ravages of which so frequently decimated the herds of the French farmer and robbed him of his well-earned return on his capital and labour. In summoning the brilliant Director of the German Imperial Board of Health to South Africa to investigate the nature of rinderpest, and, if possible, discover a means of protecting cattle from its onslaught, the Cape Government afforded another opportunity for the scientific study of a disease associated with animals, upon the successful mastery and limitation of which the agricultural prosperity of South Africa is so largely dependent, being as it is one of the most fatal and contagious maladies to which cattle are subject. Apart from the great commercial importance attending Dr. Koch's discovery of a device whereby cattle can be immunised or protected from contracting rinderpest when exposed to its contagion, this discovery is of great scientific interest, inasmuch as it has inaugurated a new departure in methods of immunisation.