OTHER GERM DISEASES AMONG ANIMALS. 285 
to agriculture. Only a brief mention of these is possible, but the 
following list includes all of the important diseases of domesticated 
animals, that have been proved to be caused by microscopic 
parasites. 
Swine Plague, Fowl Cholera, Rabbit Septicemia, Rinder- 
seuche, Wildseuche (B. pleurosepticus). These names are ap- 
plied to a variety of affections of animals, but they all appear 
to be essentially the same thing. The cause is a bacterium which 
was first identified by Pasteur as the cause of fowl cholera and 
later identified as the inciting agent in all these diseases. They 
are all contagious and often produce considerable havoc among 
domestic animals. The names given indicate the variety of animals 
attacked. Rinderseuche is the name given when it attacks cattle, 
and }Vildseuche when it attacks deer; septic pleuropneumonia and 
pneumoenteritis are also names applied to it. 
The bacterium causing all these diseases is a short rod, so short 
as sometimes to be called a Micrococcus. The cultures obtained 
from different animals have been given different names, B. bovi- 
septicus, B. suisepticus, etc., but the most careful study fails to 
show differences sufficient to warrant their separation, and the 
name B. pleurisepticus has been suggested as indicating its relation 
to its many hosts. While it attacks many animals it is, so far as 
known, harmless to man. It produces a type of disease quite similar 
to the forms of blood-poisoning which have been, in medical practice, 
called septicemia. It is extremely fatal to some animals, fowls 
and rabbits succumbing to its action with extreme rapidity and 
with almost absolute certainty. Among the larger animals its 
course is not necessarily so fatal, but in all those referred to above 
the disease is a serious one and almost always fatal. When 
attacking the hog it produces one form of swine plague, this being 
the type of the disease most commonly found among domestic 
animals, and the one which will usually be most interesting to the 
agriculturist. 
Hog Cholera. (B. suipestifer.) The hog cholera is a disease 
related to the last, although clearly distinct from it, and is one 
which develops spontaneously in swine only. It is quite common 
