228 BACILLI OF THE HEMORRHAGIC SEPTICEMIA GROUP 



Bang, therefore, called it the vacuole bacillus. Loeffler has described 

 a Bacillus parvus ovalus which was probably a Bacillus suisepticus of 

 this vacuolated type. 



Cultural Properties. The Bacillus suisepticus grows at room tem- 

 perature in artificial culture media, particularly gelatin. It grows well 

 on coagulated blood serum in the incubator, not so well on agar or 

 in bouillon. When the growth on agar is more abundant it forms a 

 sticky, slimy layer. It generally does not develop on potatoes. It 

 sometimes forms indol and sometimes phenol. 



Animals Susceptible. Mice and rabbits are very susceptible. They 

 can be easily infected from a small wound, and die very rapidly 

 after the inoculation. Guinea-pigs, pigeons, and chickens sometimes 

 succumb to the infection, at other times they are not susceptible. 



Resistance. According to Moore and Smith the resistance of the 

 Bacillus suisepticus to physical and chemical agencies is as follows: 

 It is killed if heated in bouillon for ten minutes to 58 C. Complete 

 drying out destroys it in twenty-four to thirty-six hours. It does 

 not live in soil over a week and in water not over eleven days. It is 

 killed in lime water in one minute, in 1 per cent, carbolic acid in five 

 minutes, and in formalin, 1 to 1000, in five minutes. The organism 

 is, accordingly, not very resistant. 



Immunization. The first experiments in the immunization of small 

 laboratory animals and swine against the Bacillus suisepticus by 

 attenuated cultures were made by de Schweinitz and Smith. The 

 latter, in 1891-92, reported successful immunization of rabbits and 

 swine, and, in association with Moore, again in 1894. Ostertag and 

 Wassermann have shown, independently, that animals immunized 

 with a certain stem of Bacillus suisepticus are subsequently immune 

 only against this stem, and not against any other stem. At best they 

 are only immune against a few stems, and never against all that 

 might subsequently be employed. This condition, which was con- 

 firmed by others, is not absolutely without a parallel, as it is met 

 with also in certain bacilli of the coli group. Ostertag and Wasser- 

 mann later prepared a polyvalent antiswine plague serum by inject- 

 ing a number of horses, each with several stems, and then mixing the 

 sera of the different horses. According to these authors, and also 

 Joest, Raebinger, and others, the use of the polyvalent serum has been 

 very satisfactory in Germany. From other sources the reports have 

 not been so favorable. 



BACILLUS EQUISEPTICUS. 



Equine influenza, known also under the names of pink-eye, typhoid 

 fever, epizootic catarrhal fever, horse distemper, mountain fever, 

 "Pferdestaube," "Rothlaufseuche," and "Brustseuche" (German); 

 Pasteurelosis equorum, la grippe, fievre typhoid, pneumonia 



