378 BACTERIA IN INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 



merely occasioned by the injection of a considerable 

 quantity of putrefying blood, but is of a decidedly in- 

 fective character. The assumption made above, that 

 the micrococci in the cheesy contents of these abscesses 

 are dead, does not appear in keeping with this result of 

 inoculation. This apparent contradiction may, however, 

 I think, be cleared up ; for it is very probable that these 

 micrococci, like other bacteria, form resting spores 

 (Dauersporen) after the expiration of their vegetative 

 life, and that these bodies, just like the spores of ba- 

 cillus, are not stained by aniline, and therefore remain 

 invisible in Canada balsam. The infection in the case 

 referred to would be brought about by such spores." 1 



SWINE PLAGUE ; le rouget on mat rouge des pores 

 (Pasteur) ; infectious pneumo-enteritis of the pig 

 (Klein). In a recent communication (December 

 4, 1882) to the French Academy, Pasteur gives 

 the following summary of results obtained in an 

 experimental research relating to the above-men- 

 tioned disease : 



"I. Swine plague (inal rouge des pores) is produced 

 by a special microbe, which is easily cultivated outside 

 of the body of the animal. It is so minute that it may 

 easily escape observation, even the most attentive. It 

 most nearly resembles the microbe of fowl-cholera, its 

 form being that of the figure 8. But it is smaller and 

 less easily seen, and differs essentially from the microbe 

 of fowl-cholera in its physiological properties. It has 

 no action upon fowls, but kills rabbits and sheep. 



"II. When inoculated in a pure condition into pigs, 

 in quantities almost inappreciable, it promptly gives rise 



1 Traumatic Infective Diseases, pp. 45-47. 



