414 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



swim about in tlie fluid (swarming vegetation-spores, or swarming bac- 

 teria). During tliis swarming iieriod and later, after tliey have found 

 somewliere a place of rest, these bacteria begin to stretch or to grow 

 longer — sometimes yevj long ; a traverse furcation appears in the mid- 

 dle; the ends commence to swing to and fro, and finally a separation 

 takes place, and the long bacterium is divided into two. Usually the 

 ends divide again and again, till finally the joints sometimes become so 

 short as to be not much longer than thick. In other cases only lines of 

 demarcation are formed, and an actual separation does not take place, 

 at least not at once. Li such a case the joints are first square, but soon 

 become round, and then the hacterium {sirepto bacterium) resembles a 

 coccos chain. If the glia which envelops the crecos-colonies, from which 

 the bacteria come forth, is very thick and tough, and if the bacteria part 

 from each other by separating continually, new glia and no chains are 

 formed, then confluent and resting (motionless), Glia and Petalobacteria 

 are produced, and their elements, especially on the surface of a fluid, 

 can vegetate for a long time without obtaining motion. 



According to Billroth the final changes of the bacteria and bacteria 

 chains, which have been without motion from the beginning, or have 

 come to rest after a period of sv/arming, may differ as follows : 1. The 

 plasma may pass out of the envelope in form of a sterile viscid sub- 

 stance, and the empty envelope remains. 2. The plasma may become 

 crenated in diiferent directions (moniliform), while the envelope remains; 

 the crenation leads to separation, and pale globules {micrococcos) are 

 formed, which multiply more and more within the envelope, and grow- 

 ing, roundish-shaped, "palmelloid-ramifled, and cylindrical cells or sacs, 

 fuU of micrococcos (ascococcos) are produced. These cells or sacs finally 

 break or dissolve, and the micrococcos become free. What becomes of 

 them Billroth leaves undecided. 3. The plasma of a bacterium contracts 

 to one or more shining or light-refracting globules, with dark outlines, 

 and thus the Edohacteria, commenced with, are formed. 



As nearly all these various changes and formations have been repeat- 

 edly observed, it may be that these club-shaped formations, or Helobac- 

 teria, of Billroth, which I was inclined to look upon as foreign to the 

 disease, arc only a higher development, or another form of the swine- 

 plague Schizomycetes. 



Klebs has the'^ same objections to Cohn's classification as Billroth, but 

 does not agree with the latter. He divides the Schizomycetes (Naegeli), 

 which he calls Schistomycetes, into two groups, Microsporines and 3Io- 

 nadines. According to his classification the Schizomycetes of swine 

 plague would come under the head of the former, of which it is a main 

 characteristic that the same do not develop any oflensive gases, like the 

 members of the second group, the Monadincs. 



It may be asked, which of the various forms presented in the draw- 

 ings represent the true swine-plague i)roducing Schizomycetes °? I will 

 try to answer as well as I can. In the first place, the drawings, especi- 

 ally those accompanying my first report, are not as accurate as I de- 

 sired them to be, because I am no draughtsman, and in the beginning 

 of my investigation had to work with objectives — my best lens was a 

 No. 8-im. Hartnack, much inferior to those I have now, a one-tenth 

 ToUes and No. 10 Hartnack ; therefore I had difiQculty to get sharp and 

 accurate outlines, and still greater difficulty in reproducing them on 

 paper. Secondly, a great many Schizomycetes, being so exceedingly 

 small, appear to be very similar to each other; Q,i-.\iQ,Q\^\\y Bacterium ter- 

 mo, so often met with, is very similar in appearance to the rod-sbaped 

 Schizomycetes of swine plague, and unless a very superior lens of high 



