BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 479 



proved that both in the blood and in the spleen these bacteria were very 

 few in number, so that they could not be detected in cover-glass prepara- 

 tions. We were fully satisfied that the fine bacillus claimed to be the 

 cause of the disease in France and Germany was not present. 



Anticipating somewhat the conclusions which we arrived at later con- 

 ceruing the real cause of this puzzling disease, we must say, at this 

 I)oint, that we no longer consider a micrococcus as the cause of all out- 

 iirealvs of the disease known as swine plague. The First Annual Eeport 

 of the Bureau mentions the death of three pigs from inoculation with a 

 micrococcus. This micrococcus is easily distinguished by its peculiar 

 growth on gelatine, which it rapidly liquefies. Since that time it was not 

 found excepting in one of the two cases just described. The inocula- 

 tions with this produced a rise of temi)erature within ten days in the 

 two animals which subsided a few days after. One of the animals was 

 killed about seventeen days after inoculation. The lungs were found 

 extensively hepatized. The presence of numerous lung worms left us 

 in doubt as to the cause of this hepatization. Tubes inoculated from 

 the spleen and blood remained sterile. The second animal died of swine 

 plague one month after inoculation. The results which we obtained 

 later on with another microbe lead us to suspect that this was a case 

 produced by natural infection. Whether this micrococcus is a septic 

 organism or one which is the cause of a definite disease in pigs cannot 

 be answered at present. 



The attention aroused abroad by Pasteur's vaccine as a protective 

 against the disease known as rougetin France and Eothlavf in Germany, 

 and there regarded as identical with the disease prevailing in our own 

 country, led us to examine carefully two tubes of vaccine known, re- 

 spectively, as first and second vaccine, which were kindly sent to us by 

 Prof. A. Liautard, of New York, and which ho had received directly 

 from Pasteur's laboratory. Wo were si i prised to find that the microbe 

 in the vaccine was identical with that (]( =cribed by Gorman investiga- 

 tors as being the cause of the disease in Germany. This microbe was 

 without doubt a bacillus, exceedingly small, to be sure, but not at all 

 recalling the microbe originally described by Pasteur and Thuillier as 

 having the form of a figure of eight. We shall later state our reasons 

 for supposing that the microbe first discovered by Thuillier, and the one 

 now cultivated as a vaccine in Pasteur's laboratory are two entirely dif- 

 ferent microbes and the cause of two distinct diseases. In the follow- 

 ing chapter the results of our experiments with the vaccine are given 

 in detail, and from them it will be seen that it does not prevent swine 

 plague, for the simple reason Lhat the vaccine of one disease cannot pro- 

 tect against another. 



AN EXAMINATION OF PASTEUE'S VACCINE FOE EOUGET. 



On October 16 a tube was received at the laboratory containing about 

 15*^" of Pasteur's vaccine for rouget, the European swine plague. The 

 color of the liquid, which was faintly turbid, was of a light reddish yel 

 low. A rubber cork securely closed the mouth of the tube. On (Iryin- 

 niinuto portions on cover-glasses for the purpose of examining the kind 

 of microbe it contained, the culture liquid was found to contain a con- 

 siderable proportion of solid matter which formed a thick layer on the 

 cover-glass and did not adhere firmly during the operation of staining 

 and washing. This residue is in all probability peptone, as there is no 

 precipitation on boiling. Judging from the amount of residue the cult- 

 ure liquid contained at least 2 per cent. 



