Rabbit Destruction - Dr Danysz's Experiments. Second Progress Report on Experiments made with the Danysz Virus for the Destruction of Rabbits, by Dr E. Angas Johnson and W.J.P. Giddings, Honorary Commissioners for the South Australian Government

Melbourne: J. Kemp, Acting Government Printer for the State of Victoria (for the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia), 1907. First Edition. Paperback. Very Good. Melbourne, J. Kemp, Acting Government Printer for the State of Victoria (for the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia), 1907. Foolscap folio, 6 pages (last blank). As issued (without wrappers); top left-hand corner a little creased, with a very short marginal tear below it; an excellent copy. Commonwealth Parliamentary Paper Number 1 of 1907; one of 950 copies. Jean Danysz (1860-1928), microbiologist, 'spent much of his working life at the Institut Pasteur in France and isolated a "new" strain of Pasteurella which was thought to selectively kill off feral rabbits. He arrived in Australia in 1906 on the invitation of the Council of the Pastures Protection Board to set up trials of his biological agent. Danysz and his workers were given a sizeable area on Broughton Island (off the New South Wales coast) to carry out their experiments. After many successful preliminary trials, Jean Danysz left Australia in May 1907. The Australian scientist Dr [Frank] Tidswell and Danysz's assistant A. Latapie continued with the trials. The strain was eventually found to be identical to one already isolated in Australia and although the "virus" did not appear to harm any animals other than rabbits it was not an effective method of culling the feral rabbit population.

Danysz also brought with him two cultures of Ratin and Azoa which were said to kill rats during the bubonic plague. Both were also tested in Australia for their efficacy, but proved to be of little use' ('Encyclopedia of Australian Science', online). This report deals primarily with the causes of the removal to hospital from Broughton Island of both Drs Danysz and Tidswell (it proved not to be related to the virus), and the desire to dampen the enthusiasm of the press ('there is confusion between what is to be done and the little that has been done'.