BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 627 



The disease caused by this gorra in its duration, symptoms, and 

 lesions, iji rabbits and mice, cannot be distinguished from that caused 

 by the bacterium of Eastern hog-cholera. It is, moreover, entirely 

 different from rabbit septica3mia,* in which no great enlargement of 

 the spleen, no coagulation necrosis in liver, nor inflammation of lungs 

 is present. 



Pig No. 384, fed with No. 383, was dull on the following day, with 

 relaxed bowels. It remained more or less unthrifty for several weeks 

 after feeding. 



Thus far the feeding experiments had not been conclusive, and a 

 final attempt was made, which proved successful. 



A flask containing between 600''*' and 600"" of sterile beef infusion 

 was inoculated from a culture (rabbit), and after standing six days in 

 the incubator the entire amount was given to a pig which had not 

 been fed for thirty-six hours. The culture liquid was covered with a 

 thin membrane, and on microscopic examination contained only the 

 motile bacterium. The animal became dull and weak, eating little. 

 The bowels were loose on the fourth day. On the fifth it was unable 

 to rise, and on the sixth it was found dead. The autopsy notes are 

 briefly as follows: 



In abdominal cavity several hundred cubic centimeters of a reddish 

 serum, a thin translucent exudate covering the peritoneum of the in- 

 testine, which is diffusely reddened. Between the layers of the mes- 

 entery, along the line of attachment to small intestine, an abundant 

 translucent gelatinous exudate. Spleen very dark on section; the 

 surface dotted with elevated points of extravasated blood. Liver 

 congested. Lungs normal with exception of a few lobules, which 

 are simply collapsed. ■ 



Almost the entire digestive tract was found involved. Around the 

 cardiac orifice a zone of mucous membrane about two inches in 

 width was covered with whitish diphtheritic patches. Isolated ulcers 

 in duodenum. About 6 or 7 feet of the lower portion of the small 

 intestine very much thickened, the mucous membrane covered with 

 a thin sheet of necrosed tissue, whitish, brittle. The caecum and 

 portion of the colon greatly thickened, and covered with a thick 

 layer of necrosed tissue very rough and brownish. Near rectum 

 necrosis gives way to closely set, isolated, roundish diphtheritic ele- 

 vations of a whitish color, which leave a raw surface when scraped 

 away. 



These lesions were therefore as intense as any produced by feeding 

 pure cultures of hog-cholera bacteria obtained from the East, The 

 identity of the two bacteria from Nebraska and the East was thus 

 completely established. 



In the liver and spleen the bacteria were f e\\f, for a cover-glass prep- 

 aration from each organ did not show any after some searching. 

 Liquid cultures from the blood (heart), spleen, and liver were turbid 

 on the following day, and all contained the motile oval bacterium. 

 Within four days complete membranes had formed on the surface. 

 The differential character of the bacterium had not changed, there- 

 fore, in passing through the organism of the pig. That the bacteria 

 were very few in blood from the heart was indicated by a gelatine 

 tube which had been inoculated several times with a platinum wire 

 dipped in blood; no colonies were visible on the fourth day. Of three 

 liquid cultures, each inoculated with a loop of blood, two remained 



* Journ. Comp. Medicine and Surgery, VIII (1887), p. 24. 



