INVESTIGATION AS TO ORIGIN OF CATTLE DISEASES. 181 



twenty-four hours a few small cells were seen in slide B, which rapidty 

 developed into ordinary yeast, continuing to l)ud and increase for four 

 days. The fluids in watch-glasses 4 and 5 rapidly putrefied, and were filled 

 with bacteria and monads. In watch-glasses 1 and 2 and growing slide 

 E no change had occurred in eight days. In the others a few motionless 

 bacteria appeared on the second day, after which there was no change. 

 The precautions taken in this experiment to exclude extraneous bodies 

 were great, embracing every point which could be thought of as liable 

 to lead to error. In April one of the tubes containing lung serum from 

 this cow was given to Mr. Reid, residing near Washington, and with its 

 contents he successfully inoculated several cattle, producing in each case 

 the same effects, and, judging by the after results, conferring the same 

 immunity against the disease as if perfectly fresh virus had been used. 

 The jugular vein from this cow, which had not been opened, was sus- 

 pended in a glass jar, closed with a cork dipped in parafSue. This was 

 kept at the ordinary temperature of the room and in diffuse daylight. 



June 3, 18G9, the jar was opened and the contents examined. The 

 serum had drained from the vein and collected in the bottom of the jar, 

 was of an offensive odor, and contained bacteria, moving and at rest. 

 Ko trace of mold on the outside of the vein The contents of the vein 

 showed no bacteria or molecular forms. . 



Tiie contents of the vein and the serum which had drained from it 

 were cultivated upon various substrata and in the several forms of 

 apparatus, with the usual results, viz : luxuriant development of cryp- 

 tococcus and penicillium. 



On the 3d of June, 1869, three months after it had been put up, one 

 of the vacuum tubes of blood from this animal was opened, and the con- ' 

 tents carefully examined; they could not be distinguished from freshly 

 coagulated blood ; the corpuscles were perfectly normal, and there was 

 no trace of bacteria or micrococcus. 



This blood was cultivated on growing slides and in the beaker isola- 

 tion apparatus— in one case with negative results, in others with the 

 productions of the usual penicillium forms. Healthy blood kept for the 

 same time and treated in the same way gave the same results. 



Other experimeuts were made with the pleuro-pneumonic fluids by 

 cultivating them with solutions of cane and grape sugar, which will be 

 referred to subsequently. 



The general conclusion from all the observations and experiments we 

 have made is, that in the contagious pleuropneumonia of cattle there is 

 no peculiar fungus germ present in the blood or secretions, and that the 

 theory of its cryptogamic origin is untenable. 



The significance of the appearance of bacteria, monads, penicillium, 

 &c., in the experimeyts above given will be hereafter referred to. 



