162 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



the same immunity against the disease as if perfectly fresh virus had been used. The jug 

 ular vein from this cow, which had not been opened, was suspended in a glass jar, closed 

 with a cork dipped in paraffine. This was kept at the ordinary temperature of the room 

 and in diffuse daylight. 



June 3, 1869, the jar was opened and the contents examined. The serum had 

 drained from the vein and collected in the bottom of the jar, was of an offensive odor, 

 and contained bacteria, moving and at rest. No trace of mold on the outside of the vein. 

 The contents of the vein showed no bacteria or molecular forms. 



The contents of the vein and the serum which had drained from it were cultivated 

 upon various substrata and in the several forms of apparatus, with the usual results, viz: 

 luxuriant development of cryptococcus and penicillium. 



On the 3d of June, 1869, three months after it had been put up, one of the vacuum 

 tubes of blood from this animal was opened, and the contents carefully examined. They 

 could not be distinguished from freshly coagulated blood ; the corpuscles were perfectly 

 normal, and there was no trace of bacteria or micrococcus. 



This blood was cultivated on growing slides and in the beaker isolation apparatus 

 in one case with negative results, in others with the productions of the usual penicillium 

 forms. Healthy blood kept for the same time and treated in the same way gave the same 

 results. 



Other experiments were made with the pleuropneumonic fluids by cultivating them 

 with solutions of cane and grape sugar, which will be referred to subsequently. 



The general conclusion from all the observations and experiments we have made is, 

 that in the contagious pleuropneumonia of cattle there is no peculiar fungus germ present 

 in the blood or secretions, and that the theory of its cryptogamic origin is untenable. 



The significance of the appearance of bacteria, monads, penicillium, etc., in the experi 

 ments above given will be hereafter referred to. 



SERIES II. EXAMINATIONS OF BLOOD AND SECRETIONS FROM CATTLE AFFECTED WITH 



THE TEXAS OR SPLENIC FEVER. 



On the 30th of April, 1869, two four-year old steers were killed at Corpus Christi, 

 Texas, and vacuum tubes were filled by Professor Gamgee with the blood, urine, and bile. 

 Professor Gamgee s notes state that the spleen of these animals weighed respectively three 

 and a half and three and three-quarters pounds ; the livers were fatty ; the true stomachs 

 presented erosions, and there were punctiform ecchymoses in the pelvis of the kidneys and 

 in the bladder. 



The blood and secretions were examined microscopically by Professor Gamgee, imme 

 diately after the death of the animal, with a power of five hundred and fifty diameters, 

 but nothing unusual was discovered. 



On the 25th of May one of the blood tubes was opened, and the contents examined 

 with a power of eight hundred diameters. 



The blood was dark, firmly coagulated, and without offensive odor. No white cor 

 puscles were seen; the red corpuscles were mostly normal, a few being crenated or trian 

 gular. Patches of granular matter, a few motionless bacteria, and molecules, single or in 

 chains of two or three, having a vibrating, swarming motion, were observed. 



