DISEASES OF SWINE AND OTHER ANIMALS. 15 



oculated with blood and pleural fluid containiug mimcrous actively 

 moviug- bacteria, taken from the right ventricle and pleura? of a pig 

 that had die<l of the fever the same mornmg. Next day the temperature 

 of all three was elevated. In the puppy it became normal on the thii-d 

 day, but on the eighth day a large abscess formed in the seat of inoc- 

 ulation and biu-st. The rabbit had elevated temperature for eight days, 

 lost appetite, became weak and purged, and its blood contained myriads 

 of the characteristic bacteria. The wether had his temperature raised 

 for an equal length of time, and had bacteria in his blood, though not 

 so abundantly as in that of the rabbit. The sheep and rabbit had each 

 been unsuccessfully inoculated on two former occasions with the blood 

 of sick pigs, in which no moving bacteria had been detected. Subse- 

 quently, after two inoculations with questionable results, made with the 

 blood of sick pigs in which no microzymes had been observed, Dr. Law 

 succeeded in inoculating a rabbit with the iileiu'al effusion of a pig that 

 had died the night before, and in which were numerous actively moving 

 bacteria. ISText day the rabbit was very feverish and quite ill, and con- 

 tinued so for twenty-two days, when it was killed and showed lesions in 

 many respects resembling those of the sick pigs. The blood of the rab- 

 bit contained active microzjTues like those of the pig. On the fourth 

 day of sickness the blood of the rabbit containing bacteria was inocu- 

 lated on a healthy pig, but for fifteen days the pig showed no signs of 

 illness. It was then reinociUated, but this time with the discharge from 

 an open sore which had formed over an engorgement in the groin of the 

 rabbit. Illness set in on the thii"d day thereafter and continued for ten 

 days, when the pig was destroyed and found to present the lesions of 

 the disease in a moderate degree. A second pig, inoculated with frozen 

 matter which had been taken from the open sore on the rabbit's groin, 

 sickened on the thiiteenth day thereafter, and remained ill for six days, 

 when an imminent death was anticipated by destroying the animal. 

 Diuing life and after death it presented the phenomena of the plague in 

 a very violent foi^. 



The results of these experiments have convinced Dr. LaAv, as they 

 must convince others, that the rabbit is itself a victim of this disease, 

 and that the poison can be reproduced and multiplied in the body of 

 this rodent and conveyed back Avith undiminished virulence to the pig. 

 Dr. lilein had previouslj' demonstrated the susceptibility of mice and 

 guinea pigs to the disease. The rabbit, and still more the mouse, is a 

 frequent visitor of hog pens and yards. The latter eats from the same 

 feeding troughs with the pig, hides under the same litter, and runs con- 

 stant risk of infection. Once infected, thej'*may caiTy the disease to 

 long distances. During the progress of severe attacks of the disease, 

 then- weakness and inability to escape will make them an easy prey to 

 the omnivorous hog; and tlius sick and dead alike will be devoured by 

 the doomed swine. 



Dr. Law says that the infection of these rodents creates the strongest 



