REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 89 







spores were distributed by the blood current before it ceased. The lesions were not 

 due to the bacterium of hog cholera, although resembling this disease, if we ex- 

 cept the hemorrhagic 'condition of Peyer's patches in the ileum, which we had not 

 seen in the severest cases of hog cholera.* Had the disease been hog cholera the 

 bacterium would have been revealed in several or all of the cultures made. 



Were these lesions due to swine plague bacteria ? 



To determine whether the microbes seen in the impure liquid culture from the 

 liver were swine plague bacteria a rabbit was inoculated by means of a hypodermic 

 syringe beneath the skin of the thigh with about one-eighth cubic centimeter of 

 this culture. It was found dead within forty-eight hours. 



Locally there were blood extravasations into the connective tissue and muscles 

 of the thigh and contiguous abdominal wall. There was also a gelatinous infiltra- 

 tion of the fascia3 of the muscles. Lungs cedematous; spleen dark; parenchyma 

 of liver very friable. Stomach distended with food. Mucosa covered with a layer 

 of tenacious mucus. Immense numbers of bacteria in spleen, liver, and blood from 

 the heart, all showing the characteristic polar stain of the swine plague bacteria. 

 Very few in kidneys. From the blood and spleen pure cultures in tubes of gelatine 

 were obtained. 



An impure gelatine culture from the blood of this pig inoculated into a rabbit 

 gave precisejy the same result. The rabbit died in three days of a septicaemia due 

 to the swine plague bacteria, which were found in abundance in the spleen, liver, 

 and blood. Cultures were equally confirmatory. Hence both blood and liver of 

 the pig contained these bacteria. The appended table gives the results of the inocu- 

 lations: 



Pig No. 402, February 19. 



I I 



b. I. p.t culture, liver gel.J cult, blood 



rabbit, February 24 rabbit, March 2 



died February 26 died March 5 



(cults, blood, and spleen contain only swine (cults, liver, blood, contain 



plague bacteria). only swine plague bacteria). 



A pig (No. 377), after being deprived of food for nearly a day, was fed February 20 

 with portions of the spleen, large and small intestine of No. 402. The handling of the 

 animal resulted in slight lameness for a few days. Its appetite became poor. In a 

 month after feeding (March 23) it was in a dying condition, and was consequently 

 killed for examination. 



The post mortem examination gave no clew as to the nature of the disease. There 

 were no indications of hog cholera. There were no specific lesions referable to 

 swine plague. Previous as well as subsequent experiments have convinced us that 

 the specific lung lesions of swine plague can not be produced by feeding. The le- 

 sions found are briefly as follows : 



Superficial inguinal glands very large, infiltrated with a pale serum ; cortex of 

 some of the lobules contain extravasated blood, medullary portion whitish, lardnce- 

 ous. Peritonitis indicated by very slender threads of fibrin stretched across the 

 coils of intestine. Lungs and digestive tract normal. Right ventricle distended 

 with a clot, the center of which is pale. Two liquid cultures from peritoneal fluid 

 remained sterile. 



No. 405 was found dead February 18, after several days of great weakness and 

 diarrhea. The severest lesions were confined to the lungs and the large intestines, 

 as the following post mortem notes indicate : 



Patches of skin on the inner aspect of limbs, over the abdomen and pubic region, 

 deeply reddened. Lymphatics of meso-colon enlarged, but pale. The mucous 

 membrane of the large intestine presents throughout a dark red, raw aspect, and is 

 covered more or less entirely with a continuous layer of exudate, which readily 

 comes away. Ventricles of heart filled with very dark, partially coagulated blood. 

 The ventral portion of both lungs, involving perhaps one-half their entire volume, 

 hepatized and portions of it firmly adherent to the thoracic wall, the diaphragm, 

 and pericardium. 



The disease seemed to involve all below a horizontal line when the lungs were 



* Excepting in those fed with liquid cultures. See Annual Report Department of 

 Agriculture for 1886, p. 614. 



i Beef infusion containing 1 per cent, peptone. 



jBeef infusion containing 1 per cent, peptone and 10 per cent, gelatine. 



