REPORT OF RESll.TS OF HXA:\ITXATI0NS OF FLUIDS OF DTSEASED CATTLE 

 WITH REFERENCE TO PliESENGE OF CRYPTOGAAIIC GROWTHS. 



1!Y 1U!KVET LIKUTF.XANT COLONKL J. S. HILLIX(;S, ASSISTANT SUKGKON U. S. ARMY, AND 

 BKKVKT MAJOR EDWARD CUR'JIS, ASSISTANT SURGEON U. S. ARMY. 



In accordance with the request of tlie Honorable Commissioner of Agri- 

 cnltiire, and with instructions received from the Snrgeon General United 

 States Army, to investigate the question of the possible cryptogamic 

 origin of cattle diseases, we have carefully examined many samples of 

 blood and secretions from diseased cattle, furnished us from time to time 

 by Professor Gamgee, and have experimented with them in various 

 Avays. The residts of our investigations we have to report as follows: 



The questions which we have endeavored to answer are these : 



1st. Are any forms of cryptogamic growth present during life in the 

 blood or secretions of the diseased animals ? 



2d. If so, of what character are they, and what is their probable source f 



Supposing the above* queries answered, there would still remain the 

 problem of the nature of the connection between the cryptogam and the 

 disease, a problem which we have not attempted to discuss. 



As the fungi are the only cryptogams which it is necessary to con- 

 sider, reference will be made to these only. 



The fnngi which are supposed to cause disease in animals are, when 

 in their i^erfect state, or at least in such a state that they can be identi- 

 fied, composed of mycelium and spores. But according to the advocates 

 of the cryptogamic origin of disease, neither the mycelium nor the spores 

 of the fungus that produces the maladyarenecessarily or even usually to 

 be found in the fluids or tissues of the affected animal, their theory being 

 that the disease is pro'duced by the presence in the economy of minute 

 particles of protoplasm, (micrococcus of Hallier,) resulting from develop- 

 ment and breaking up of the spores or mjcelium of a fungus; from which 

 granules, they assert, can be developed perfect forms of fungi, of recog- 

 nizable genera and species, by proper " cultivation" outside of the body of 

 the animal fluids containing them. 



Thus, when the blood of a pleuro-pneumonic cow fresh from the vein 

 is examined with a magnifying i)ower of 1,200 diameters linear, nothing 

 distinctive or unusual may appear; the red and white blood corpuscles 

 may be i>erf<'ctly normal, and nothing like spcu-es or mycelium will be 

 seen. I>ut there will j)robably be, either single or in masses, some minute 

 granules or molecules appearing as glistening points scattered over the 

 field. If such are not present at first, by keeping the blood exposed to 

 tlie air for a few hours they may be found in abundance. 



Now it is these little molecules which are asserted to cause disease by 

 their presence in the animal economy, and which are claimed to be vege- 



