BACTERIA IN INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 589 



ECZEMA EPIZOOTICA. 



monym. Foot and mouth disease. 



Tnis is an infectious disease of horned cattle, characterized by a vesicular 

 eruption in the mouth and about the feet. It affects also sheep and pigs and 

 may be communicated to man. 



Schottelius (1892) has described a microorganism which he thinks may 

 bear an etiological relation to the disease. His inoculation experiments do- 

 not, however, sustain this view, inasmuch as the characteristic vesicles were- 

 never developed in inoculated calves, and experiments upon other animals- 

 gave a negative result. In young cattle small doses (one cubic centimetre) 

 of a bouillon culture gave rise to a slight fever and loss of appetite, while 

 larger doses produced an intense fever, salivation, and great debility. But 

 recovery occurred at the end of five or six days without any aphthous erup- 

 tion. Schottelius obtained from the clear contents of the vesicles in the. 

 mouth various bacteria which he believes to have been accidentally present. 

 After making a considerable number of culture experiments his attention 

 was attracted by a spherical microorganism, united in chains, which grew 

 very slowly in the ordinary culture media. This he describes as follows : 



The individual cells vary greatly in diameter, and are considerably larger 

 than known micrococci ; they are associated in longer or shorter chains, and 

 are endowed with active movements. According to Schottelius, they be- 

 long to the " streptocyt en " rather than to the streptococci. They do not 

 stain readily with methylene blue, but may be stained with gentian violet 

 and by Gram's method. Development does not occur at temperatures below 

 37 to 39 C. The most suitable culture medium was found to be bouillon or 

 glycerin agar to which formate of soda had been added (amount?). Growth 

 occurred in an atmosphere of CO 2 as well as in atmospheric air. Upon, 

 plates of nutrient agar containing glycerin and formate of soda at 37 C., 

 very delicate, almost transparent colonies developed ; they were of a pearl- 

 gray color, with an irregular, rosette-like margin ; in the course of several 

 weeks they attained a diameter of one to one and one-half millimetres. 

 Upon potato a scanty, grayish-white, dry layer is developed. Under the 

 most favorable conditions the development was very slow not more rapid 

 than that of the tubercle bacillus. 



Kurth (1894) obtained from the contents of vesicles on the udders of in- 

 fected animals seven different microorganisms, six of which were not con- 

 stantly present, while the seventh was found in great numbers in all 

 cases, with one exception, and was also present in the saliva. This was a 

 streptococcus, named by Kurth Streptococcus involutus. Pure cultures of 

 this streptococcus were rubbed into the mouths of young sheep and calves 

 without result. Sanfelice (1894) in an extended research verified the pres- 

 ence of the Streptococcus involutus of Kurth in the aphtiious vesicles and 

 superficial erosions of the tongue in infected animals. But his inoculations 

 of pure cultures into susceptible animals gave a negative result, and he con- 

 cludes that this streptococcus is not concerned in the etiology of the disease. 



Piano and Fiorentini (1895) arrive at the conclusion that the disease is 

 not due to any microorganism belonging to the schizomycetes ; but that it is 

 probably due to an amoeboid microorganism which is found in the contents 

 of the vesicles and in the blood of infected animals. This conclusion is in 

 accord with the views of Schottelius and of Behla, and will probably prove to 

 be well founded. 



EMPYEMA. 



"A. Frankel (1888), as a result of his bacteriological studies in 

 twelve cases of empyema, divides the cases into four groups. In one 

 group of three cases Streptococcus pyogenes was the only microor- 





