378 TIMOTHY RICHARDS LEWIS. 



The movements of these " vibrions " were stopped on subjecting 

 them to the action of compressed oxygen, but they were not 

 killed, because on coming into contact with the oxygen they were 

 transformed into corpuscles- g ermes , the ' spores ' of Dr. Koch. 

 This, it may be remarked in passing, is a novel and rapid method 

 of producing reproductive elements in plants. 



Not only do these " vibrions ^' of septicaemia withstand the 

 action of compressed oxygen, or rather become transferred by its 

 action from perishable filaments to apparently imperishable cor- 

 jpuscles-gennes, but they, like the ' spores ' in charbon, also with- 

 stand the action of absolute alcohol. Hence, M. Pasteur infers 

 that septicaemia, as well as charbon, is caused by organisms — the 

 parasite of the former being mobile, but that of the latter not. 



It will be more convenient to analyse these results hereafter. 



c. — Vegetable Organisms in Pneumoenteritis — " Typhoid fever" 



of the Pig. 



In February of the present year Dr. E. Klein, P.R.S., brought 

 before the Royal Society a portion of the result of an experi- 

 mental inquiry (which had been conducted for the Medical 

 Officer of the Local Government Board) into the etiology of a 

 disease sometimes described as typhoid fever of the pig, also as 

 hog plague, mal rouge^ red soldier, and malignant erysipelas. 

 Dr. Klein, however, proposes to show that the disease is not 

 typhoid fever, nor anthrax, but an infectious disease of its own 

 kind, which he proposes to call " infectious pneumo-enteritis " of 

 the Tpig (Pneumo-enteritis contagiosa).^ The disease appears to 

 present considerable pathological resemblance to septicaemia and 

 to charbon, except that, as regards the latter, the fresh blood 

 does not, as a rule, contain any foreign matter, and in most 

 instances does not possess any infectious property. Of five 

 animals inoculated with the fresh blood, one only was affected, 

 but the specimen of blood which produced this retained its activity 

 when closed in a capillary tube for several weeks. The peri- 

 toneal exudation, however, always contains the virus in an active 

 state, and solid lymph obtained from such an exudation will, if 

 dried at about 38° C, prove active. This accords pretty closely 

 with what has usually been observed in septicaemia. Inocula- 

 tion can also be effected by means of portions of diseased lung, 

 intestine, or spleen, as also with the frothy sanguineous exudation 

 in the bronchi, and infection may take place when the virus is 

 introduced directly into the stomach. 



^ " Experimental Contributions to the Etiology of Infeclions Diseases 

 with special reference to the Doctrine of Contagiuin Vivum," ' QuarLerly 

 Journal of Microscopical Science,' April, 1878, p. 170. 



