| DISEASES OF SWINE AND OTHER ANIMALS. 325 
tember, the day following the death of the first pig, a healthy pig of 
mixed Poland-China and Berkshire was confined in the same pen with the 
sick pig that died on the 30th of that month. 't showed no signs of 
sickness until the 2d day of October, when the first symptoms of the 
disease were observed. It continued to grow rapidly worse, and was 
- found dead in its pen on the morning of the 11th, nine days after the first 
symptoms were observed. 
Experiments were made with a large number of other animals to test 
the infectious and contagious character of the plague. These experi- 
ments included the confinement of healthy with sick animals, and the 
inoculation of healthy animals with the diseased products of those suffer- 
ing with the fever. In almost every case, as will be seen from his de- 
tailed report, Dr. Detmers was successful in transmitting the disease 
from sick to healthy animals. 
The microscopic investigations of Dr. Detmers also revealed some im- 
portant facts. His discovery of a new order of bacteria or bacillus, which 
he names bacillus suis, as it is common only to this disease of swine, and 
his failure to inoculate healthy animals with virus from which these 
germs had been removed by filtration and otherwise, would lead to the 
conclusion that these microphytes are the true seeds of the hog fever. 
Dr. Detmers invariably found these germs, in one form or another, in 
all fluids. So constantly were they observed in the blood, urine, mucus, 
fluid exudations, &c., and in the excrements and in all morbidly affected 
tissues of diseased animals, that he regards them as the true infectious 
principle. They would seem to undergo several changes, and to require 
a certain length of time for further propagation; therefore, if introduced 
into the animal organism, a period of incubation or colonization must 
elapse before the morbid symptoms make their appearance. These 
germs were generally found in immense numbers in the fiuids, but more 
especially in the blood and in the exudations of the diseased animals. 
With the proper temperature and the presence of a sufficient amount of 
oxygen they soon develop and grow lengthwise by a kind of budding 
process. A globular germ, constantly observed under the microscope, bud- 
ded and grew under a temperature of 70° F. twice the original length in 
exactly two hours, and changed gradually to rod-bacteria or bacilli. Under 
favorable circumstances these bacilli continue to grow in length until, 
when magnified 850 diameters, they appear from one to six inches long. A 
knee or angle is first formed where a separation is to take place, and 
then a complete separation is effected by a swinging motion of both 
ends. After the division, which requires but a minute or two after this 
swinging motion commences, the ends thus separated move apart in dif- 
ferent directions. These long bacteria seem pregnant with new germs; 
their external envelope disappears or is dissolved, and then the numer- 
ous bacillus germs become free, and in this way effect propagation. 
Some of the bacilli or rod-bacteria move very rapidly, while others are 
apparently motionless. A certain degree of heat would seem to be nec- 
essary for their propagation, as, under the microscope, the motion in- 
creases and becomes more lively if the rays of the light, thrown upon the 
slide by the mirror, are sufficiently concentrated to increase the temper- 
ature of the object. Another change observed by Dr. Detmers, but the 
cause of which he was not able to determine, was observed in the fact 
that the globular bacteria or bacillus germs commence to bud or grow, 
when, very suddenly, their further development ceases, and partially 
developed baciili and simple and budding germs congregate to colonies, 
agglutinate to each other, and form larger or smaller irregularly-shaped 
and apparently viscous clusters. These clusters are frequently found in 
