EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 239 



"Since my return from the army I have devoted about one-third of 

 my time to teaching. Besides that, we have been short of help and the 

 research work has, therefore, progressed very slowly, but we hope to do 

 better as soon as conditions return to a normal basis. 



"Some experiments have been carried out to see if the Bad. abortus 

 will penetrate into the deeper laj'ers of the uterine mucosa and remain in 

 localized areas as a latent infection. Our results seem to indicate that 

 staphylococci, streptococci and the B. coli communior may do this, but 

 we have not found abortion bacilli in any of the cases, which we have 

 examined. IMaterial for such work is scarce, so we have not yet been 

 able to examine a sufficient number of genital organs to give us any con- 

 clusive data on this subject. 



"The problem of isolation and cultivation has been worked on with 

 some promising results. One of the workers of the Department of Animal 

 Patholog}' of the Rockefeller Institute for medical research has described 

 an improved method of isolating the Bad. abortus from macerated fetal 

 membranes of aborting cows. This method consists in injecting guinea 

 ])igs intraperitoneally or subcutaneously with high dilutions of the sus- 

 pected material and then allowing one month to elapse before making 

 the autopsy. At the end of this period the animals are killed and a piece 

 of the spleen, about the size of a pea, is cut out and rubbed against an 

 agar slant and then pushed down into the water of condensation. The 

 tubes are now sealed with sealing wax and incubated for about ten days. 



"We have tried this method with cultures of Bad. abortus and known 

 infected milk as well as with milk and tissues from animals which have 

 a history and blood reaction indicating that they are free from abor- 

 tion disease. It is too early to give a detailed report, but we have found 

 the characteristic lesions and obtained cultures of the Bad. abortus in 

 those cases where infected material and pure cultures were used as in- 

 oculum, whereas the other cases proved negative. Instead of sealing 

 the individual tubes, we place them in Novy jars and exhaust the air by 

 means of a suction pump. Under such conditions we have obtained good 

 growth in five days. 



"Dr. Stanley G. Bandeen, graduate student in the departments of 

 pathology and bacteiiology, has been working on 'The relation of the 

 bacterial flora of the uterus to that of the meconium of the calf.' The 

 summary of his thesis reads as follows: 



"The twenty four cases (Table II) studied for a comparison of the 

 flora of the uterus and meconium showed that the twelve uteri gave cul- 

 tures in 833^ per cent. The uterus contained more organisms than the 

 meconium. The meconium was found to be infected with B. coli com- 

 munior, staphylococcus and streptococcus. These organisms were also 

 found in the uterus. Bact. abortus was found to persist in the uterus for 

 twenty eight days. In no case was Bact. abortus found in the meconium. 

 In all cases except Case 805A whenever the meconium was infected, the 

 uterus was found to harbor the same organism. In some cases the me- 

 conium was found to be sterile, while the uterus harbored organisms. 

 B. coli and certain cocci were found in the sealed uteri of apparently nor- 

 mal cows. The results obtained in this article will be of interest to in- 

 vestigators, of white scours of calves, who believe that the calf is infected 

 before birth. A large percentage of calves are born with infected meconium. 

 The uterus is first infected, probably followed by the fluids and lastly, the 



