VETERINARY MEDICINE. 879 



Inoculation experiment with pure culture of SpirochEeta hyos: Studies on 

 hog- cholera, W. E. King and R. H. Drake {Jour. Infect. Diseases, 16 (1015), 

 No. 1, pp. 54-57, figs. 4). — As a continuation of previous work (E. S. K., 32, 

 p. 378) it is now reported tliat some of tlie difficulties encountered in attempt- 

 ing to obtain pure culture of S. hyos have been overcome. By painstaking 

 efforts a pure culture of the Spirochceta was obtained, and when injected into 

 hogs produced typical hog cholera of the acute type. 



Protective and curative vaccination tests for hog cholera with shoats, 

 and utilizing the vaccine of Dr. Doyen of Paris, "\V. Pfkiler {Mitt. Ver. Deut. 

 Scfitveinezilchter, 22 {1915), Nos. 1, pp. 2-5; 2, pp. 14-16; abs. in Berlin. 

 Tierarztl. Wchnschr., 31 {1915), No. 8, pp. 91, 92).— According to Doyen, his 

 vaccine can be used for treating " pneumoenterite " (a disease affecting 2 to 3 

 months' old pigs in France), hog erysipelas, and hog cholera, as well as other 

 infectious diseases. The vaccine was administered in laboratory tests to 8 pigs 

 affected with hog cholera or shoat typhoid, but in no case did it alter the course 

 of the disease, and all the animals died. In addition 54 swine of different sexes 

 and kinds were treated in practice, and here also the results were unsatisfac- 

 tory. A number (53) of the slaughtered animals showed abscesses at the site 

 of injection. 



A preliminary report on the investigation into equine abortion existing 

 in the Province of Ontario, F. W. Schofield {Amer. Yet. Rev., 41 {1915), 

 Nos. 3, pp. 310-^24; 5, pp. 547-557). — The objects of this investigation were to 

 determine whether the abortion occurring among the mares in certain parts of 

 Ontario is true contagious abortion, the result of an infection with a specific 

 organism ; if contagious abortion, what were the factors involved in the spread- 

 ing of it from one district to another ; and how the disease, when once estab- 

 lished, can be controlled and finally eradicated. 



BaciUus ahortivus eqniniis was isolated from the uterine discharge of aborting 

 animals. Fixation of complement occurred with B. abortiviis equimis but not 

 with allied strains, as B. coli communis or B. cholerw suis. In all districts 

 where abortions have occurred the blood samples indicate that in the majority 

 of cases they were due to B. ahortivus equinus. Between 70 and 80 per cent of 

 the abortions occurred during the last month of pregnancy. Thei'e were five 

 cases in which positive fixation reactions were obtained but in which no abor- 

 tions occurred. 



"The agglutination and complement-fixation reactions parallel each other 

 with great accuracy. In almost all cases of fixation the agglutination titer is 

 high and vice versa. However, a combination of both should be employed to 

 insure greater accuracy. In most cases where the reaction failed to show up 

 the abortion had occurred many weeks and occasionally months previously. 

 . . . Antibodies may still be found in the blood serum of a mare as late as 

 seven months after the abortion. 



" Investigation of the outbreaks in this Province seems to indicate that the 

 stallion plays an important part in the spread of the disease. However, further 

 research is necessary in order to justify any of the existing theories of natural 

 infection." 



Mixed infection vaccine in one hundred and seventy cases of joint ill, 

 F. W. Schofield {Amer. Vet. Rev., 47 {1915), No. 3, pp. 348, 345).— Bacterio- 

 logical examinations were made at the Ontario Veterinary College of the syno- 

 vial fluid of 23 cases of joint ill. From five, all of which occurred in an abor- 

 tion-infected district, a pure culture of BacilUis ahortivus equinns was obtained. 

 Ten others gave an almost pure culture of a Gram positive hemolytic strepto- 

 coccus, while the remaining eight were mixed infections of B. coli, Staphylo- 

 coccus aureus, and S. alhus. 



