The Microscope. 81 



jelly to the surface and place on the cover as before. In this way 

 wood sections may be arranged and kept in their places. Wood 

 sections may be stained and mounted the same as ferns. 



Something more might be said about staining ferns by separate 

 modes, or staining the colors separately, but we will reserve that till 

 another time. 



Edgartown, Mass. 



THE GERM OF THE SOUTHERN CATTLE PLAGUE. 



BY FRANK K. BILLINGS, 

 DIRECTOR OF THE PATHO-BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY OF THE STATE UNIVER- 

 SITY OF NEBRASKA. 



TN order to prove that it is the manure of infected cattle which 



lodges the germs of the Southern cattle plague, we must first 

 find the germs. 



Has anybody found them ? To which I answer that there has, 

 and that the honor belongs entirely to Nebraska, as well as does that 

 of completely connecting the germ of swine plague with that disease 

 and discovering the true nature of that pest. Detmers saw the 

 germ of swine plague first, but it was left to us to prove its unques- 

 tioned connection with that disease. Our discoveiy of the germ was 

 as original as if it had never been discovered, but in no way detracts 

 from Dr. Detmers' credit as the first discoverer. Salmon, of Wash- 

 ington, deserves credit for nothing except ten years' protracted 

 deception of the American public. 



Detmers found a germ in the Southern cattle plague, but it 

 was a large bacillus and had no direct communication with the dis- 

 ease. Salmon found another coccus in this disease also, but it was a 

 double coccus and had no relation to it. These observations will be 

 considered in detail in our full report. How may we know that 

 we have discovered the germ in any specific disease ? In order to 

 make such an assertion the following conditions must be fulfilled in 

 every detail: 



First. — In the tissues of animals illjwith a specific disease must, 

 in each case examined, be found the same germ. 



Second. — This germ must be cultivated, free from every other 

 germ, in some of the artificial media. 



Third. — It must be shown that the germ in question has patho- 

 genetic (disease producing) qualities by inoculating animals and 

 killing them thereby. 



