580 EXPERIMENT STATION EECOED. 



tion by the writer since 1899; and (b) Diplococcus pneumonia or pneumococ- 

 cus wbicb also produces adhesive pleuritis, j^ericarditis, suppurative peritonitis, 

 and general septicemia. In the author's studies, the pneumococcus infection 

 was usually grafted on the pneumonia due to the motile bacillus. A study of the 

 work of earlier observers indicates that both organisms have manifested gross 

 differences in virulence in different epidemics. 



" Independent of and frequently associated with pneumonic lesions due to the 

 motile bacillus is an extreme fatty degeneration of the liver, luugs. raid other 

 organs of chiefly female guinea pigs leading to death just before or after parturi- 

 tion. The fatty degeneration as well as the pneumonia is almost wholly limited 

 to the winter season (December-May). 



" The motile bacillus lives over from winter to winter in old pneumonic foci 

 or in the air tubes, attached to cilia, as decribed by Tartakowsky. It does not 

 occur as a parasite of the air tubes in all guinea pig populations and attempts 

 should be made to breed from noninfested stock. 



"The reason for the seasonal incidence of pneumonia is not demonstrated. 

 It evidently depends on a variety of interlocking, external as well as internal, 

 factors, without the help of which the micro-organisms can not multiply in the 

 parenchyma of the lungs." 



A bibliography of 24 titles is appended. 



About the diagnosis of trypanoses in general and the possible differen- 

 tiation of the trypanosomes causing' the disease by the aid of sera from 

 highly immunized animals, A. Lanfra,nchi (Clin. Vet. [Milan], Rass. Pol. 

 Sanit. e Ig., 35 {1912), No. 19-22, pp. 928-945; ads. in Berlin. Tierdrztl. 

 Wchnschr., 29 (1913), No. 26, p. 470).- — In previous work « it was shown that 

 nagana trypanosomes, which had been repeatedly passed through the spleens of 

 dogs, suffered a marked decrease in virulence. By simultaneously injecting 

 (subcutaneously, intravenously, or intraperitoneally) the dogs so treated with 

 a slightly attenuated virus, an immune serum of high potency was obtained. 

 The experiments have now been continued with an immune serum of this 

 character, and tests were made with the agglutination, precipitation, and com- 

 plement fixation tests for the purpose of determining whether the various try- 

 panosomes could be differentiated from one another, especially nagana and the 

 organism causing dourine. 



The results can be summarized as follows: The serum from dogs which were 

 highly immunized against nagana possesses a high agglutination value (1: 75,000), 

 l)ut agglutinates Trypanosoma 'brucei and T. equiperdum in the same dilution 

 and just as rapidly, consequently the method can not be used as a differential 

 method. With the precipitation reaction, however, it was found that if nagana 

 serum was mixed with the serum from an animal artificially infected with T. 

 brucei or with T. equiperdum in the ratio of 1: 3 a marked difference could be 

 noted between nagana and dourine. In the case of nagana a positive reaction 

 was obtained, irrespective of whether the serum was taken at the beginning, 

 the height, or the end of the disease, while with dourine a negative reaction 

 was shown at the beginning and end of the disease. Positive results at the 

 height of the dourine infection were only obtained with guinea pigs, and only 

 when the serum present was greater than the ratio mentioned above. The 

 serum from mice affected with dourine was not precipitated at the height of in- 

 fection, not even when a large amount of serum was added. The sera from 

 nagana and dourine behave alike with the complement fixation reaction and 

 react positively in all stages of the disease, consequently this can not be used 

 for differential purposes. 



« Berlin. Tierarztl. Wchnschr., 26 (1910), No. 13, p. 285. 



