INFLUENZA IN HORSES. 



237 



tho failure of the blood of cholera patients to induce that disease in 

 healthy men. It does not disprove the existence of a poison, but merely 

 that the subject was an unsuscepti- 

 ble one, or that the poison is not 

 l)reseut in the blood. 



Nature of the contagion. — The exist- 

 ence of a contagion being acknowl- 

 edged, the question next arises as 

 to its nature. We are left to choose 

 between two theories : First, that 

 which recognizes in fungi and other ^'- 

 low organisms the specific poison ; -^"^"^ 

 and, second, that which seeks the \ / . , 

 l^athogenic element in the infinit- ' '^ 



esimal granules of organic matter, found floating in the infecting atmos- 

 phere, as well as in the solids and fluids of the animal body. 



The first-named theory is open to the objection that no specific vege- 

 table germs have been found in the air, blood, or nasal discharges during 

 the prevalence of influenza. Before the advent of the recent epizootic 

 at Ithaca I subjected the floating elements in the air obtained in stables 

 and field to microscopic observation, and repeated the observations 

 while the affection was advancing to its climax. Spores were found 

 abundantly, of the forms represented in Fig. 39, but the same were 

 found before and after the arrival of the disease. The mucus from a sick 

 horse's nose contained similar Fig. 4i. 



spores, and the dust obtained bj' 

 shaking a handful of hay taken 

 from the interior of a hay-mow, 

 after the influenza had subsided, 

 showed them in great abundance. 

 The objects in the air were ob- 

 tained by drawing it through an 

 aspirator and directing the current 

 on a drop of glycerine on a glass 

 slide. The mucus and blood from 

 diseased horses were received on a 

 glass slide, and immediately cov- 

 ered. The dust from hay was al- 

 lowed to fall on a glass slide, with 

 a drop of glycerine, and immedi- 

 ately covered. The objects shown 

 in Fig. 40 were deposited on a glass 

 slide, with a drop of glycerine, exposed for a night in a field near a house. 



I append the report of observations conducted by ]Mi\ Taylor, micro- 

 scopist to the Department of Agriculture ; and another of observations 

 made by Dr. Jackson, Columbia, South Carolina. 



ItErORT ON OBSERVATIOXS BY THE MICROSCOnST OP THE UErARTMEXT OF AGRICUL- 

 TURE. 



To the Commissioner of Afjriculturc : 



Sir: In accordauco witli your iustructions, I have mado a microscopic examiuatiou 

 of the mucus flowing from tho nostrils of several horses suffering from the prevailiug 

 horse influenza. 



On the 4th instant I collected mucus from the nostrils of Ave horses suffering from 

 the malady, and suhmittcd a portion of each to a power of about TiO diameters, when 

 tho entire field appeared covered with siiore-like germs, gelatinous and semi-trans- 

 parent. Under a power of about CW diameters they appear as disks, some ol 

 which, under favorable conditions, may be seen moving on their edges. Perfect and 

 imperfect cells were combined in a mass. All exhibited dotted markings. After the 



