10 DISEASES OF vSWIXE AND OTHER ANIMALS. 



mLseil Poland-Cliina and Berkshire was coufmed in tlie same pen with the 

 sick pig- that died on the 30th of that mouth. It showed no signs of 

 sickness until the 2d day of October, when the first symptoms of the 

 disease were observed. It continued to grow rapidly worse, and was 

 found dead in its pen on the morning of the 11th, nine days after the first 

 symptoms were observed. 



Experiments were made with a large number of other animals to test 

 the infectious and contagious character of the plagiie. These experi- 

 ments included the confinement of liealthy with sick animals, and the 

 inoculation of healthy animals with the diseased products of those suffer- 

 ing with the fever. In almost every case, as vnll be seen from his de- 

 tailed report, Dr. Detmers was successful in transmitting the disease 

 from sick to healthy animals. 



The ]nicroscopic investigations of Dr. Detmers also revealed some im- 

 iwrtant facts. His discovery of a new order of bacteria or hacilhi^, which 

 he names hacUlus suis, as it is common only to this disease of swine, and 

 his failure to inoculate healthy animals with viras from which these 

 germs had been removed by filtration and otherwise, would lead to the 

 conclusion that these microphytes are the true seeds of the hog fever. 



Dr. Detmers invariably found these germs, in one form or another, in 

 all fluids. So consta.ntly were they observed in the blood, urine, mucus, 

 fluid exudations, &c., and in the excrements and in all morl^idly affected 

 tissues of diseased animals, that he regards them as the true infectious 

 principle. They would seem to undergo several changes, and to require 

 a certain length of time for further propagation ; therefore, if introduced 

 into the animal organism, a period of incubation or colonization must 

 elapse before the morbid symptoms make their appearance. These 

 germs were generally found in immense numbers in the fluids, but more 

 especially in the blood and in the exudations of the diseased animals. 

 "With the proper temperature and the presence of a sufficient amount of 

 oxygon they soon develop and grow lengthwise by a kind of budding 

 process. A globular germ, constantly observed under the microscope, bud- 

 ded and grew under a temx)erature of 70° F. twice the original length in 

 exactly t wo hours, and changed gradually to rod-bact<'ria or haciUi. Under 

 favoriiblc ckcumstances these hacilU continue to grow in length until, 

 when magnified 850 diameters, they appear from one to six inches long. A 

 loiee or angle is first formed where a separation is to take place, and 

 then a complete separation is ell'ected by a swinging motion of both 

 ends. After the division, which requires but a minute or two alter this 

 swinging motion commences, the ends thus separated move apart in dif- 

 ferent dh-ectious. These long bacteria seem pregnant with new germs; 

 their external envelope disappears or is dissolved, and then the numer- 

 ous bacillus germs become free, and in this way effect propagation. 

 Some of tbe haciUi or rod-bacteria move very rapidly, whik> others are 

 apparently motionless. A certain degree of heat would seem to be nec- 

 essary for their propagation, as, under the microscope, the motion in- 



