14 DISEASES OF SWINE AND OTKEE xYNDIALS. 



was more time allowed ibr septic (;haiij;e^. In all three cases the inocu- 

 latiou proved succcsstul. This experiment would prove that the morbid 

 products, even in comparatively thick layers, may dry spontaneously, 

 and retain their vitality sutficiently to transmit the disease to the most 

 distant States. 



Another pig was inocidated Avith a portion of moist diseased intestine 

 sent from Illinois in a closely-corked bottle. The material had been three 

 days ii'om the pig, and smelt slightly putrid. The disease developed on 

 the sixth day. A second pig was inoculated with blood from a diseased 

 pig that had been kept for eleven days at 100° F. in an isolation appara- 

 tus, the outlets of which were plugged with cotton wool. Illness super- 

 vened in twenty-four hours. 



A solitary experiment of Dr. Klein's having appeared to support the 

 idea that the blood was non-Airident, Dr. Law tested the matter by in- 

 oculating two pigs with the blood of one that had been sick for nine 

 days. They sickened on the seventh and eighth days respectively, and 

 from one of these the disease was stUl fiu'ther propagated by inoculating 

 with the blood three other animals. Notwithstanding the success of 

 these three experiments, Dr. Law is still doubtful of the blood being vir- 

 ulent at all stages of the disease. 



But one or two experiments were instituted by Dr. Law to test the 

 question of infection through the air alone. A healthy pig placed in a 

 pen between two infected ones, and Avith the ventilating orifices within 

 a foot of each other, front and back, had an elevated temperatiu'e on the 

 ninth, tenth, and eleventh days, with lameness in the right shoulder, 

 evidentlj" of a rheumatic character. On the twenty-fourth day the tem- 

 perature rose two degrees, and remained 104° F. and upward for sis 

 days, when it slowly declined to the natui^al standard. 



A healthy i)ig was placed in a pen from which a sick one had been 

 removed thirteen days before. The pen had been simply swept out, but 

 subjected to no disinfection other than the free circulation of aii', and as 

 the pig was placed in the pen on December 19th, all moist objects had been 

 frozen diuing the time the apartment had stood empty. The pig cUed on 

 the fifteenth day thereafter, without having shown any rise of tempera- 

 ture, but \fith 2)Ost-mortcm lesions that showed the operation of the poison. 

 Dr. Law refers to this case as an example of the rapidly fatal aiHion of 

 the disease, the poison having fallen with prostrating effect on vital 

 organs — the lungs and brain — and cut life short before there was time 

 for the full development of all the other lesions. It fully demonstrates 

 the preservation of the poison in a covered building at a temperature 

 below the freezing point. 



Perhaps the most important experiments conducted by Dr. Law were 

 those relating to the inoculation of other animals than swine with the 

 vii-us and morbid products of pigs suffering with the plague, and the 

 transmission of the disease from these animals back to healthy hogs. 

 A meiino wether, a tame rabbit, and a Newfoundland puppy were ill- 



