REPORT OP THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 147 



oculated by tearing up a piece of hepatized lung tissue in sterile beef infusion and 

 injecting the turbid liquid subcutaneously remained well. 



Several miles from the first farm we came upon a herd of young pigs which were 

 just showing signs of disease, although none had been lost. One of them, with un- 

 steady gait, which hid in the litter under a shed and returned to it when driven 

 away, was killed by bleeding from the vessels of the neck. The lungs were without 

 a sign of disease. Spleen enormously enlarged and gorged with blood. The lym- 

 phatic glands of groin and about stomach very large, but rather pale, and cedema- 

 tous on section. Stomach filled with food. * Large intestines overdistended with 

 very dry, hard feces, somewhat softer near caecum ; in the latter only one ulcer, 

 and this on the valve about one-fourth of an inch across, and of the same nature as 

 the one found in the preceding case. 



A portion of the spleen of this animal was taken to the laboratory and cultures 

 made as in the previous case, with bits of spleen. All cultures remained perma- 

 nently sterile. 



Several miles from the latter place we found the disease on a farm situated on a 

 hill. The swine were allowed to go a considerable distance down the slope to a 

 marshy stream. The owner had lost 6 or 8 out of a herd of 20 to 25 within six weeks. 

 A few were evidently ill, but none were killed, as a dead one was found. It had 

 probably died during the night. The buzzards had consumed nearly all the intes- 

 tines through a small, hole near the pubis. Putrefaction had already set in. Spleen 

 enlarged, slightly congested. In the small portion of the large intestine, which still 

 remained, an ulcer was found three-eighths inch across. The glands or lesser omen- 

 tum with hemorrhagic cortex. The stomach contains a small quantity of bile- 

 stained fluid. Both lungs glued to chest wall by coagulated fibrin from blood ex- 

 travasation. Left lung contained about ten to fifteen hemorrhagic foci, visible 

 under pleura, one-fourth to one-half inch across. The principal lobe of right lung 

 solid, granular, evidently broncho-pneumonia. The hepatized lobe was discolored 

 by recent and extensive blood extravasation. A gelatinous deposit under sternum 

 resting on pericardium. The semi-decomposed condition of the animal prevented a 

 more careful examination. Portions of the spleen and hepatized lung tissue were 

 taken for examination. 



While the spleen of the two preceding cases showed no indications of bacterial 

 life on cover-glass preparations, the spleen of this case con tamed a considerable 

 number of bacteria resembling hog cholera bacilli very closely. On gelatine they 

 grew differently from the latter, and the cultures emitted a slightly offensive odor. 

 In liquids they were actively motile. They were putrefactive bacteria, without 

 effect upon two rabbits inoculated with large quantities of the cultures. A rabbit 

 inoculated with the diseased lung tissue remained well. The latter, on closer ex- 

 amination, had a texture as granular as the roe of fishes, the granules being inspis- 

 sated cell masses in the alveoli and air tubes. At least four different kinds of 

 bacteria were present in large numbers. 



The absence of specific disease germs from the spleens of these pigs 

 is in harmony with the results obtained in other infections maladies 

 when animals are killed in the early stages or during the height of 

 the disease. It is only in the last stages that the bacteria are able 

 to multiply and appear in sufficient numbers in the internal organs 

 to be detected. In the third case, death was very likely brought on 

 by the pulmonary hemorrhage not infrequently found in hog cholera. 

 The specific bacilli produced at first the ulcers, and were either work- 

 ing their way slowly into the internal organs or else were being de- 

 stroyed in the ulcer itself. The latter termination would signify 

 recovery, the former death. These ulcers might be aptly com- 

 pared to the malignant pustule in man, in which the virus re- 

 mains at first localized but may spread throughout the system 

 after a time. The presence of numerous ulcers in swine is to be 

 regarded as a multiple infection, while in the three cases just cited 

 the infection was limited to a few foci or but one. The ulcers would 

 no doubt have revealed the virus, but our previous experience with 

 the spleens of diseased swine made it seem unnecessary to study the 

 nicer itself. As regards the lung disease of the third case nothing 

 positive can be said. It resembled most closely chronic swine plague. 

 The germ of this disease was not present, however, as shown by the 

 rabbit inoculation. 



