REPORT OF THE BUKEAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 91 



bright red (recent) to a grayish red. In all, the minute grayish points are pres- 

 ent from 1 millimeter to 2 millimeters in diameter, about the same distance apart, 

 and of a hazy outline. The smaller bronchi are filled with a purulent fluid. In 

 the surrounding lobules in which the disease is more advanced the interlobular 

 tissue is distended with a serous infiltration; the large vessels are filled with very con- 

 sistent dark cfots. Heart rather large; pericardium free; right auricle, ventricle, 

 and large veins distended with thrombi; smaller white thrombus in left ventricle. 



Microscopic examination of the lung tissue in cover-glass preparations shows the 

 presence of numerous bacteria with the polar stain in recent lesions; in older ones 

 they are rare. Other forms are present, but only in small numbers. The pleural 

 exudate was made up of round cells, bound together by bundles of fibrin; it con- 

 tained few bacteria. 



In transverse sections of the large intestine, where a mass of exudate is still at- 

 tached, the muscular and submucous layers are intact, if we except a slight cellular 

 infiltration near the base of the crypts. The mucous layer, however, is considera- 

 bly changed. The surface epithelium, including a portion of the crypts of Lieber- 

 kuhii, is no longer distinguishable, but merges without demarkation into an exu- 

 date several millimeters thick, consisting of leucocytes imbedded in a mesh-work 

 of fibrin, the whole refusing to stain. The pathological process seems to be diphthe- 

 ritic in nature, the membrane being attacked from the digestive tube and not from 

 the submucous tissue. 



Pure cultures of swine plague bacteria in tubes of gelatine were obtained from 

 the pleural exudate. In each needle track a large number of colonies developed. 

 A piece of the false membrane gave the same result. Cover-glass preparations from 

 spleen and liver were negative. Two tubes of beef infusion into which bits of spleen 

 had been dropped remained sterile. Two similar cultures from the liver contain 

 each the bacillus butyricus, evidently of post mortem growth. The blood from the 

 heart was also free from bacteria, for two tubes of gelatine, each inoculated six or 

 seven times with blood, did not develop a single colony. 



These results show that the specific microbe is not regularly present in the internal 

 organs, and can only be obtained from the diseased lungs and pleura. A rabbit inocu- 

 lated in the ear with a bit of lung tissue died within four days. There was no swell- 

 ing or reddening of the ear. Lungs deeply congested (hypostatic ?). Immense num- 

 bers of swine plague bacteria in blood, spleen, and liver. Cultures from blood and 

 liver containe I. only the same organisms. A mouse inoculated with a bit of lung 

 tissue succumbed within two days. Bacteria very scarce in body. Pure cultures 

 of swine plague bacteria were, however, obtained from heart's blood. 



I liver 



cults, contain 

 Mar. 12 butyric bacilli 



Mar. 26 



rabbit (ear), Apr. 12 

 died Apr. 15 



swine plague 

 bacteria. 



No. 408 from the same farm died March 5. The post-mortem examination was 

 delayed forty-eight hours, the temperature being above the freezing point a part of 

 the time. 



Skin diffusely reddened over the entire body. On buttocks tough and leathery. 

 The most marked lesions found in the internal organs are briefly as follows: On sec- 

 tion of kidneys six or seven petecchies on each pyramid. In f undus of stomach, which 



