EEPOET OF THE BUEEAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTEY. 



from one-eighth to one-quarter inch in diameter. Spleen slightly enlarged, dark. 

 No bacteria to be seen in spleen pulp, but the large pale cells have their protoplasm 

 filled with deeply stained (methylene blue) points. In the belief that the local effect 

 of the inoculation was the cause of death, as the rabbit had lived so long, two tubes 

 of agar were inoculated with bits of the enlarged thigh muscle. These remained 

 sterile. 



On December 1 another ulcer was inoculated by tearing it up in sterile water and 

 injecting cubic centimeter of the suspension of ulcerated tissue. This had been 

 kept in the refrigerator or the outside air since it was collected. It was, however, 

 considerably decomposed. The rabbit died December 11. There was in this case also 

 extensive pasty thickening of the subcutis over the thigh and abdomen about one- 

 quarter inch thick. No peritonitis. Spleen enlarged, dark, softened. Lungs pale; 

 blood dark, coagulated very imperfectly. In the caecum for about 3 inches 'from 

 the blind end are about eight ulcers. The surf ace of the ulcers is hemorrhagic, the 

 base made up of thickened pale-red tissue. The genesis of these ulcers was explained 

 in subsequent cases as a caseous (suppurative) condition of the follicles in the walls 

 of the intestine, which broke through the membrane and caused hemorrhage on the 

 mucous surface. They may have been due to emboli from the inflamed subcutis, 

 which was very likely the cause of the abscesses in the heart muscle of the preced- 

 ing case. 



Cover-glass preparations from the spleen, liver, blood, and subcutaneous infiltra- 

 tions revealed no bacteria, but a considerable number of leucocytes with elongated 

 or divided nucleus, in the protoplasm of which were numerous punctiform bodies 

 deeply stained (methylene blue). Agar tubes were inoculated from liver, spleen, 

 and blood. All but one remained sterile. This contained a motile bacillus very 

 much like the hog cholera germ, but it grew more vigorously on agar and liquefied 

 gelatine, besides having no effect on mice and rabbits. The swine plague germ was 

 therefore not obtained in cultures from these rabbits. 



At the same time (November 13) a shoat (No. 3) was killed for examination which 

 was reported to have been sick for some time. On the back of the neck there was 

 an area 3 to 4 inches in diameter, from which the skin had sloughed away, and in 

 which the muscular tissue was exposed to view. This may have accounted, per- 

 haps, for the illness, since nothing abnormal was found in the animal excepting 

 collapse of the left ventral lobe of the lungs in which broncho-pneumonia was not 

 yet apparent. The intestines were normal. 



Farm B. The disease had appeared about the middle of October in 

 a herd of 63 shoats and 12 old hogs. By the end of the year 53 shoats 

 and 5 old hogs were dead, and the disease practically extinct. When 

 the disease broke out the shoats occupied a 40-acre corn field, and 

 were also fed with skimmed milk and slops from the house. The old 

 hogs were penned, receiving all the corn they could eat. The exam- 

 ination included the following cases: 



November 14, No. 4, small pig, probably died yesterday noon. Temperature of 

 the air below freezing. Emaciated. The disease seems limited to the lungs and 

 digestive tract. The former have the ventral lobes airless, of a red flesh color. In 

 the other lobes are a number of scattered foci of collapse and beginning pneumonia. 

 The large intestines are extensively ulcerated, there 'being at least three ulcers to 1 

 square inch of mucosa. In some places the necrosis is in the form of bands parallel 

 tO;the ridges or folds of the membrane. The lowest foot of the mucosa in the 

 ileum is completely converted into a slough. 



From the spleen, which is small and pale, two bits were placed in agar tubes, 

 though no bacteria were seen on one cover-glass of spleen pulp. One tube re- 

 mained permanently free from growth ; the other developed a dense whitish, glis- 

 tening growth, extending upward from the spleen tissue on the surface of the agar. 

 In bouillon peptone it grew slightly more turbid than the hog cholera germ, bul 

 had the same form and was motile. On gelatine it grew without producing lique- 

 faction. From the liquid culture two mice and a rabbit were inoculated November 

 28. One of the mice was found dead on the fifth day. In each lung dark red foci 

 of hepatization. Intestines in part blackish, also stomach near pylorus, evidently 

 due to tarry contents, which may have been due to hemorrhage, although it was 

 impossible to decide this point, owing to the small size of the animal. In the small 

 spleen a few bacteria were seen, but no cultures were made therefrom in the expec- 

 tation of getting better results from the other mouse and the rabbit. But both of 

 these remained well, so no importance was attached to it. The mouse killed with 

 chloroform one month after inoculation showed no lesions of any kind. 



