784 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



We have found this bacillus — named B. JactimorU — in the internal organs. and 

 heart blood of animals examined but a few hours after death. In some instances 

 it was present in pure culture (for example, heart blood of a heifer, liver of 

 a fetal calf, gut nodule of a horse, etc.). The same bacillus has been found 

 by us in cow's milk collected by one of us under aseptic conditions and in 

 butter suspected of having communicated the disease. It was also present in 

 the feces in several nonfatal human cases of milk sickness. We have also found 

 it in the soil of milk sick regions. . . . 



" Taken as a whole the facts do not surely indicate that a specific micro- 

 organism is the cause of milk sickness or trembles. The bacillus in' question 

 belongs to a group which seems widely distributed and for the most part cer- 

 tainly not endowed with pathogenic qualities. In particular localities, liowever, 

 where the soil conditions are favorable in respect to moisture and other un- 

 known factors, strains of the bacillus perhaps possess pathogenic or toxigenic 

 characters ; but if so, these, according to our experience, are quickly lost under 

 artificial culture." 



A complete bibliography is appended. 



Additional notes on the bacteriolog'y and pathology of milk sickness, A. B. 

 LucKHARDT {Jouv. Infect. Diseases, 6 (1909), No. 4, pp. '{92-505, figs. 3).— This 

 is a report of bacteriological studies conducted in connection with the investi- 

 gation noted above. 



" The preceding exi^eriments are far from being decisive in establishing 

 Bacillus lactimorM as the etiological factor in the production of milk sickness. 

 The organism either loses its pathogenicity very rapidly when grown on arti- 

 ficial media, or the virulence of the organism is dependent on what may be 

 termed a symbiotic life or existence on certain plants. It is possible that its 

 growth on such plants as the rayless golden-rod (Bigelovia), and white snake- 

 root (Eupatorium ageratoides) is responsible for its pathogenic power." 



The prevalence of rabies in the United States, J. W. Kkrr and A. M. Stimson 

 (Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc., .53 (1909), yo. 1.3, pp. 9S9-99'i, fig. i).— "To sum- 

 marize briefly the results of this inquiry, there were 111 deaths in human 

 beings from hydrophobia reported from 30 States during the year 1908. Rabies 

 was reported in the lower animals from at least 53-4 localities in 39 States 

 and Territories, including the District of Columbia. Evidence has also been 

 secured of nearly 1,500 persons who, on account of exposure to rabies, or pre- 

 sumably rabid animals, were obliged to take the Pasteur treatment. The 

 disease is disseminated throughout the eastern three-fourths of the country, 

 and seems to have been unknown during the past year only in the Rocky Moun- 

 tain and Pacific slope regions." 



Diag'nosis of rabies, V. A. Moore (Amer. Vet. Rev., 36 (1909), No. 1, pp. 20- 

 30). — This paper was presented at the forty-sixth annual meeting of the Ameri- 

 can Veterinary Medical Association at Chicago, September. 1909. A list of 

 some of the more important works on the subject is appended. 



The nature, cause, and prevalence of rabies, J. R. Mohler (Amer. Yet. Rev., 

 36 (1909), No. 1, pp. 31-Jf-'t). — A paper presented at the forty-sixth annual 

 meeting of the American Veterinary ]\Iedical Association at Chicago, Septem- 

 ber, 1909. 



The development of a piroplasma and trypanosoma of cattle in artificial 

 culture media, E. Martini (Philippine Jour. ScL, B. Med. Sci., 4 (1909), No. 

 3, pp. lJi7-169, pis. 6). — ^" In the Philippine Islands there are domestic cattle 

 apparently quite healthy which are carriers of the parasite of surra. These 

 cattle are a continual danger, especially for horses, in which surra always 

 runs a fatal course. There exists a variety of Texas fever which is perhaps 

 identical with that seen by Jobling and Woolley in the years 1903 and 1904. 



