646 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



DISEASES "Animal very thin; ulcerated sores on skin, especially in 



region of neck and right side of chest; abdominal organs all 

 right; heart and lungs in good condition. There was a large 

 number of enlarged lymph nodes, many of them having under- 

 gone cheesy degeneration. These enlarged lymph nodes were 

 in the region of the neck, the right axillary region, and about the 

 lungs. 



"Bacteriological examination: Cultures taken from the 

 lymph nodes (the diseased ones) on agar and on bouillon all 

 showed a pure culture of the ordinary germ of suppurative 

 processes (the staphylococcus P yogenes aureus). 



"Cultures from the lungs were negative. Examination 

 for the tubercle bacillus was negative. 



"Diagnosis: The Rabbit died, I should say, from a sep- 

 ticaemia due to infection by the staphylococcus Pyogenes aureus 

 (the yellow pus-producing coccus that grows in clusters). 



"This infection may easily have started in some acci- 

 dental or skin wound, or possibly in some parasitic skin disease 

 common to Rabbits, and might easily be transmitted from 

 one to another. 



"There was no hemorrhagic condition present in the 

 mucous membranes or elsewhere, though that and very ex- 

 tensive changes in all parts of the body (kidney, liver, spleen, 

 etc.) would doubtless have taken place, had the animal lived 

 longer, because the germs were present in the blood and so 

 were carried everywhere. 



"One of my associates. Dr. Casey, kindly assisted me in 

 the bacteriological examinations." 



Two unfortunate Snowshoe-hares from Maine came in 

 October. Their heads were plentifully beaded with blue 

 ticks; at least a score were hanging about each ear. They died 

 in a short time and the autopsy showed that they had had still 

 other troubles. Dr. W. Reid Blair, of the New York Zoological 

 Park, examined them and reported: 



"Both bodies showed identical lesions, viz.: gastric and 

 intestinal catarrh, with small hemorrhages throughout the 



