BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTHY. 477 



likewise contained several forms. Finally, the persistent impurity of 

 the contents of vacumn tubes, as veil as cultures made directly from 

 the serous effusions at the post mortem examination, forced us to con- 

 clude that we must not look for any pure cultures from this source. 

 The inference was that microbes gained access to the closed cavity 

 through lesions caused by the extensive ulcerations of the large intes- 

 tine which always accompanied these cases, and that they were not 

 there destroyed either because the system had been so debilitated or 

 the microbes were capable of a parasitic existence. 



The peritoneal exudate had been luonounced virulent by Klein, who 

 thence obtained the bacillus claimed by him to be the cause of swine plague. 

 We determined to isolate and study the different bacteria which we 

 should meet with in this exudate by culture and inoculation. If the 

 lesions in the intestine were due to a local multiplication of the specific 

 microbe in the mucous membrane, it seemed natural to supi)Ose that 

 it would be very abundant in the contents of the intestinal canal and 

 would find its way with the other bacteria into the peritoneal cavity, 

 and that, having become adapted to the struggle with animal tissues, it 

 might even outgrow the other forms in this situation. At the same 

 time the possibility must not be set aside that septic bacteria might 

 gain entrance in the same way by a rapid invasion of the blood or lym- 

 phatic channels or both, materially change the clinical aspects of the 

 disease, and give rise to various apparently inexplicable phenomena 

 and sequelse. In two cases a bacillus was found in the peritoneal cavity 

 made up of long, jointed filaments, and probably identical with the ba- 

 cillus of malignant oedema ( Vibrion septiqtie), the spores of which, ac- 

 cording to Koch, are abundant in the soil. These filaments were found 

 in great abundance upon cover-glasses upon which a delicate film of 

 peritoneal exudate had been dried. In another pig, which died in the 

 night during a heavy frost (November 22, 1884), and which was exam- 

 ined early next morning, a cover-glass touched to the peritoneal surface 

 of the liver was found crowded with a bacillus in long, jointed filaments, 

 no doubt identical with the preceding. The appearance of the abdom- 

 inal cavity in this case, as indicated in the notes of the post mortem, 

 are briefly as follows : 



Abdomen on opening emits a faint odor not observed in previous 

 cases. Ulcers of the mucous membrane of the large intestine plainly 

 visible through the peritoneum ; peritoneum dry, no serum in the cav- 

 ity, no evidence of peritonitis. Liver of a pale reddish color ; on sec- 

 tion bloodless ; crecum and colon studded with ulcers, some covered 

 with a projecting black necrotic mass. Sections of the liver hardened 

 in alcohol were found to contain three different forms of microbes, the 

 bacillus found on the surface of the liver, the individual filaments of 

 which were very long, a small slender bacillus, and a micrococcus ; these 

 were present in equal numbers. The cover-glass with which the peri- 

 toneal surface of the large intestine had been touched in close proximity 

 to the ulcers revealed not a single microbe among the numerous epithe- 

 lial cells Avhich had come away. Thus the invasion of the bacillus was 

 no doubt by way of the bile ducts in this case. The presence of such 

 large numbers of microbes in the liver tissue can hardly be accounted 

 for by a post mortem growth in this instance. In blood collected from 

 the heart and examined unstained, this same bacillus was found, the 

 elements pale and almost disintegrated. 



In sections made of one of the ulcers, the mucous membrane was found 

 entirely thrown off, as well as a portion of the submucous connective 

 tifisue. The muscular layer was replaced by an inflammatory infiJtra- 



