244 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



"(3) The s\vine-pl;i<j;ne bacteria arc not found beyond the tissues immediately sur- 

 roundinji' the point o|i their injection. 



"(4) Subcutaneous injection of small doses of either hog-cholera or swine-plague 

 bacteria of ordinary virulence have little, if any, pathogenic eitect." 



Kelative to the practical bearings of these investigations tlie follow- 

 ing statements are made: 



"Our observations on hog cholera lead me to believe that even if a fairly successful 

 and cheap method of vaccination against hog cholera could bo devised the result 

 would be that a number of animals would contract a chronic type of the disease 

 after infection, and these would have all the objectionable features of worthless 

 auimals scattering infection about for mouths. . . . 



"When epizootics of either disease [hog cholera or swine j)lague] appear among 

 swine they are due largely to aggravating circumstances, and the removal of these 

 is the key to the prevention of swine diseases. . . . 



"More attention should be paid to the effect of food, both in predisposing to hog 

 cholera and swine plague and in producing diseases of the digestive organs which 

 simulate hog cholera, but which are probably quite easily prevented. A thorough 

 study should also be made of lung worms and ascarides. If these difficulties can be 

 removed or mitigated, and if the diseases due directly to impi-oper feeding be elimi- 

 nated by more careful attention to fundamental principles, it is more than probable 

 that the infectious swiue diseases Avill largely disappear. This prediction is based 

 on the fact, esperinien tally determined, that swine naturally possess more or less 

 immunity toward both hog-cholera and swine-plague bacteria, and that with vigorous 

 digestion and sound lungs they may be able to resist the infection which can reach 

 them in decently kept surroundings." 



On the disappearance of the anthrax bacillus after death, J. 



McFadyean {Jour. Boy. AgL Soc. Eiu/land, ser. 3, 5 {1894), No. 18, pp. 

 260-269). — The author's conclusions are drawn from inoculation experi- 

 ments with rabbits and sheep and from observations made in the 

 laboratory during the present year. The aerobic anthrax bacillus 

 degenerates and dies as soon as the supply of oxygen is cut off by the 

 death of the animal. Immediately normal putrefactive bacteria invade 

 the carcass. One of these anaerobic putrefactive germs is the so-called 

 malignant (edema bacillus, which in size and shape so far resembles 

 the anthrax bacillus as to be easily mistaken for it. 



Within 24 hours after the death of an animal from anthrax the car- 

 cass, if left unopened, sometimes contains not a single anthrax bacillus 

 in the organs of the chest or abdomen. However, in the blood of the 

 ears or the feet the bacillus may be recognized on the third day after 

 death. Hence it is recommended that for a suspected case of anthrax 

 a complete post-mortem examination should not be conducted, but that 

 a piece of the ear be cut off and the blood from its veins submitted to 

 microscopic examination. 



The author considers that the danger of soil contamination is greater 

 from the bleeding resulting from a post-mortem examination than 

 from the liberation of the bacilli from buried carcasses that have not 

 been opened. Wlien the possibility of spore formation on the part of 

 the anthrax bacilli is prevented by the exclusion of air and by the 

 maintenance of the temperature below 70° F., both of which conditions 



