VETERINARY SCIENCE AND PRACTICE. 789 



reactions were obtained which were not considered t3"pical. No 

 reaction was obtained with normal blood from 12 guinea pigs which 

 were tested, and similar results were obtained from testing the normal 

 blood of hogs. After inoculation with the hog-cholera bacillus the 

 agglutinating property appears in the ])lood within from -1 to 6 days 

 in rabbits, guinea pigs, pigs, and cattle. When inoculations are made 

 with cultures of feeble virulence, the appearance of the agglutinating 

 property in the l^lood is frequently delayed several da3\s beyond the 

 usual time. In animals which survived the inoculation the persistence 

 of the agglutinating reaction seemed to depend upon the severity of 

 the disease. 



Rabies {U. 8. Dejjt. Agr., Bureau of An i mal Indmtry Bui. 25^j>2^' 

 ^5).— -This bulletin contains a report of the Committee on Public 

 Health of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia upon the 

 general subject of ralnes, with special reference to local conditions. 

 The Medical Society of the District of Columbia, at a meeting held 

 April 11, 1900, referred an investigation of the matter to the Commit- 

 tee on Public Health to recommend such action as might be considered 

 advisable. 



The main body of the report is controversial in nature, in which 

 the position is taken that rabies is an acute specific disease due to a 

 specific virus, and is produced ordinaril}^ by the bite or saliva of an 

 infected animal. It is stated that the Bureau of Animal Industry 

 demonstrated by biological test in the District of Columbia 2 cases in 

 1895, 5 in 1896, 3 in 1897, 7 in 1898, 19 in 1899, and 15 up to the end 

 of March, 1900. The committee gives a general discussion of the 

 symptoms, period of incubation, diagnosis, rate of mortality, treat- 

 ment, and methods of prevention of rabies. These subjects are further 

 discussed in appendixes to the bulletin, and also the subject of the 

 muzzle as a means of prevention. 



An organism pathogenic to rats, J. Danysz {Ann. In.st. Pastew\ 

 IJf. {1900}, JVo. 4, pp. 193-201).— K cocco bacillus which resembles 

 Bacillus coll was isolated from an epidemic of field mice and was found 

 to be slightly pathogenic to rats. A number of experiments conducted 

 in -feeding cultures of this bacillus to rats indicated that 2 or 3 out of 

 every 10 rats thus fed ultimatel}^ died with a disease similar to that 

 produced in mice by the same Imcillus. It was found upon further 

 experimentation that this bacillus became gradualh* weakened in its 

 virulence in passing from rat to rat. Experimental passages of the 

 bacillus through a series of rats demonstrated this fact, as well as the 

 gradually decreasing mortality in the number of rats exposed to infec- 

 tion from this disease. From these results it was believed that the 

 reason for the gradual diminution in virulence of the bacillus was to 

 be found in the regular alternation of media from the intestine to the 

 blood. The bacillus was carefully cultivated on a bouillon medium. 



