QGQ REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OP AGRICULTURE, 



the- fenestra of the sternum to the membrane surrounding tlie eoils of intestine. 

 The serum between the two muscleK crowded with the injected bacteria. The um- 

 cosa of the intestine below the duodenal portion, inchiding the cteca and the rectum, 

 ■was very mucli intiamed. The ca?ca and the cloacal portion of rectum of a very 

 dark red. Tliere were also occasional hemorrhages beneath the mucosa. The bac- 

 teria seein to be confined to the local lesion, for cultures from the blood and liver 

 remained sterile. The second fowl remained ill. sitting quietly and not moving 

 unless distiu-bed. It was killed nine days after inoculation. The local lesion pre- 

 sented the appearance of a more advanced degeneration, but was more circum- 

 scribed, and limited in its depth to the larger pectoral. The intestines and other 

 organs were free from inflammation. Cultures from this bird remained sterile. 



In order to determine whether there would be any difference in the mortality or 

 the lesions, another mode of inoculation was resorted to. Instead of employing 

 liquid cultures and injecting into the subcutaneous tissue with the hypodermic sy- 

 ringe, a gelatine culture nine days old was used and the inoculation made as follows: 

 In three mice an incision was made through the skin at the root of the tail, and into 

 the subcutis through this incision a loop of the gelatine culture, consisting of a mixt- 

 ure of gelatine and microbes, was introduced. With the same amount two guinea- 

 pigs were inoculated beneath the skin of the abdomen, two pigeons and one fowl 

 beneath the skin covering one of the pectorals, and one rabbit on the imier surface 

 of the ear, near the tip, by puncturing the skin with the point of a lancet and in- 

 serting the mass into wound thus made. Of these animals the two guinea-pigs, the 

 rabbit, and two mice died. The pigeons and fowl remained unaffected. 



The mice died three and four days after inoculation respectively. One guinea-pig 

 died in five days. The subcutis of the ventral surface of body from neck to pubis 

 was infiltrated with a sero-sanguineous effusion and thickened, the skin itself infil- 

 trated. There was but little change in the internal organs excepting the hver, which 

 was pale and very friable. No exudate indicative of peritonitis, although a cover- 

 ^lass touched to the surface of the hver contained very many bacteria, which were 

 few in number in liver tissue and blood from the heart. The second guinea-pig died 

 on the eighth day with the same but less extensive local lesions, parenchymatous 

 degeneration of liver and spleen. The rabbit's ear had a deep red blush on the day 

 after inoculation; enlarged slightly and drooping backward. There were no marked 

 symptoms of disease at any time. The animal died on the ninth day. There was 

 an extensive inflammatory infiltration of the subcutaneous tissue and fascia over 

 the sides of head, extending to the top, involving the ventral aspect of neck and ex- 

 tending to shoulders laterally. The subjacent muscular tissue was considerably 

 ecchymosed. Peritoneal exudate absent. Degeneration of liver and spleen. Bac- 

 teria ijLumerous m the local infiltration, very few in blood and organs. A liquid 

 culture from heart's blood was found pure. 



These results place fowls and pigeons upon the border line of susceptibility; that 

 is, these animals may be destroyed by large doses, but are not affected by small ones. 

 They also put rabbits, guinea-pigs, and mice among the susceptible animals, the first 

 named being the most susceptible. In every case the moculation seems to produce 

 local lesions, the extent and severity of which seem to stand in an inverse relation 

 to the number of bacteria found in the blood and the internal organs, and in a direct 

 relation to the duration of the disease. 



The foregoing inoculations were made from cultures derived from 

 the pleural exudate of pig No. 2 (Sodorus, 111.). The same germ was 

 isolated from the spleen and blood of the same animal. 



Three tubes of gelatine, into which bits of spleen had been put, began to liquefy. 

 (It will be remembered that the spleen was enormously enlarged and softened.) One 

 of these contained only a large bacillus, another the same bacillus and a microbe 

 resembling the one under consideration. By means of plate cultures these were 

 separated and a pure culture of this microbe obtained. By introducing beneath the 

 skin of two mice bits of the spleen containing the two forms a pure culture of the 

 same microbe was obtained from one of the mice which died three days after inocu- 

 lation. Two mice, inoculated with bits of spleen from the culture containing the 

 liquefying bacillus only, remained unaffected. From a vacuum tube of blood taken 

 directly from the heart of the same animal pvu-e cultures of the same microbe were 

 obtained. 



From pig No. 1 (Sodorus) two pipettes were filled with blood, ob- 

 tained with every precaution directly from the heart. One of these 

 tubes, opened three weeks later, was used to inoculate a liquid cult- 

 ure, which proved, when tested on gelatin© plates, a pure culture of 



