390 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Though not contagious iu the ordinary seuse of the word, the disease 

 may be communicated to healthy animals by grazing them on the same 

 ground with diseased animals. In view of this it was recommended 

 that turpentine be given the healthy animals once a month. 



Pneumonia of the pig. — During experiments on the causation of swine 

 fever the absence of pneumonia in a large number of animals led to an 

 investigation of this trouble as connected with swine fever. A request 

 to a large number of veterinarians to send in the lungs of fever-affected 

 animals showing evidences of pneumonia resulted in obtaining less 

 than a dozen lungs. Some of the freshest of these were selected for 

 microscopic examination and experimentation with rabbits, pigs, and 

 pigeons. Five microorganisms were detected and found morpholog- 

 ically and culturally different from swine-fever bacillus and to belong 

 to the haeinoragic septicaemia type. As found in the blood the most 

 common form is short and rod-like, with rounded ends. It stains with 

 aqueous methylene blue more intensely at the poles than in the middle, 

 and then resembles somewhat a diplococcus. With these there always 

 occur forms more distinctly bacillar. The bacteria in question are 

 smaller than swine-fever bacilli and are further distinguished from it 

 by being nonmotile and in cultures by their forming opaque, spherical, 

 or oval well-defined colonies. The 5 organisms, though morphologically 

 the same, vary in virulence for rabbits and pigeons. 



In conclusion, it is thought swine-fever bacilli do not commonly cause 

 pneumonia and that the presence or absence of pneumonic lesions will 

 not enable one to determine whether or not the pig has been affected 

 with swine fever. 



Poisoning horses by spoiled potatoes. — In the examination of several 

 cases of poisoning the poison was traced to feeding potatoes that were 

 old, mildewed, and partly decayed. As the potatoes were steamed 

 before feeding, the toxic effects are attributed to changes produced by 

 bacteria or fungi similar to those in so-called "meat" poisoning. The 

 first symptoms noticed were loss of power in the limbs, the animals lying 

 or falling down and then being unable to get up. Toward the last 

 there seemed to be some difficulty in swallowing. Eleven cases are 

 noted as fatal. Post-mortem examination showed all of the principal 

 organs in a healthy condition with the exceptiou of the large intestine, 

 the walls of which gave evidence of slight irritation. 



On formic aldehyde as a means of influencing animal diseases, 

 W. Eber (Dent, landw. Presse, 14 (1897), Wo. 61, p. 556). — The author 

 takes up the question as to the real utility of formic aldehyde and its 

 commercial combinations— steriformin (a solution of formic aldehyde in 

 a solution of milk sugar) and "holzin" (a solution of formic aldehyde 

 in methyl alcohol). He conies to the conclusion that when taken inter- 

 nally the formic aldehyde is in. so weak a solution as to be valueless. 

 Inasmuch as it is not excreted in the urine, as shown by experiments 

 in which large doses of steriformin were fed to a cow and the urint 

 tested, it probably forms organic internal compounds. 



