292 BACILLI OF THE TYPHOID GROUP 



of gas formation. In Dunham's peptone solution the bacillus forms 

 indol. The term Bacillus coli does not cover, as it is becoming 

 more and more evident, a single species, but a number of closely 

 allied varieties. 



WHITE SCOURS, OR DIARRHEA, IN CALVES. 



Occurrence and Historical. White scours, or diarrhea, in calves, 

 dysenteria neonatorum, diarrhoea neonatorum; "Ruhr der Sauglinge," 

 "Durchfall des Sauglinge," "Kalberruhr" (German), is an acute, 

 contagious diarrhea of calves, attacking them during the first days 

 of their lives. The disease has occasionally also been observed among 

 foals, lambs, and pigs. The disease in calves is generally caused by 

 bacteria* representing different varieties of the colon bacillus. This 

 was established through the long-continued investigations and experi- 

 ments of Jensen, who was the first to make a bacteriologic study 

 of the disease (1891). His early findings of pathogenic colon bacilli 

 in the blood and organs of calves dead from the disease was first 

 confirmed by Pina, Monti, and Veratti. 



The disease generally begins one to two days after birth, sometimes 

 within a few hours after delivery. After two to four further days the 

 clinical picture of the disease is well developed. 



Pathologic Lesions. Two forms of the disease, varying in rapidity 

 of the course and the pathologic lesions, can be distinguished. In the 

 rapidly fatal form the mucosa of the stomach and intestines is red 

 and hyperemic, hemorrhages are seen here and there, and the contents 

 of the intestines are hemorrhagic. The peritoneal covering of the 

 intestines is likewise hyperemic. The mesenteric glands are swollen, 

 hyperemic, and edematous. The spleen is generally enlarged, some- 

 times considerably. In the blood, colon bacilli are found in consider- 

 able numbers. In the second type, which generally appears somewhat 

 later after birth, and which takes a somewhat slower course, the 

 hyperemia of the gastro-intestinal tract and of the internal organs in 

 general is not so great, but of a rather moderate degree. The intestines 

 are flabby, pale, extended by gas; the intestinal mucosa is only very 

 moderately hyperemic. The mesenteric glands are swollen, but 

 pale; the spleen is not swollen. Colon bacilli are not found in the 

 blood, but in the intestines only. 



Diarrhea in calves has also been sometimes ascribed to bacilli of 

 the colon group, which are more nearly related to the hog cholera 

 than to the colon bacillus. Jensen also observed some cases of 

 diarrhea in calves which he considered due to an infection with the 

 Bacillus proteus vulgaris. All these cases, except those apparently 

 due to pathogenic varieties of the colon bacillus, however, are rare; 

 the latter have also been designated as "coli bacillosis of calves." 

 Moore, likewise, has found a variety of the colon bacillus as the 



