BACILLI WHICH PRODUCE SEPTICAEMIA 



volved, as shown by the presence of albumin and tube casts in the 

 urine. 



An extremely minute quantity of a bouillon culture injected be- 

 neath the skin of a rabbit causes its death in from seven to twelve 

 days ; a larger quantity may produce a fatal result in five days ; in- 

 travenous injections of very small amounts may be fatal within 

 forty-eight hours. After a subcutaneous injection the animal re- 

 mains in apparent good health for three or four days, after which it 

 loses its appetite and is indisposed to move ; several days before 

 death the temperature is suddenly elevated from 2 to 3 C., and it 

 remains high until the fatal termination. At the autopsy the spleen 

 is found to be enlarged and of a dark-red color ; the liver is studded 

 with small, yellowish- white, necrotic foci; the kidneys have under- 

 gone parenchymatous changes ; the heart is fatty ; and the intestinal 

 mucous membrane is more or less marked with haemorrhagic extra- 

 vasations. The bacilli are found in all of the organs. In house 

 mice the results of experimental inoculations are similar to those in 

 rabbits. Guinea-pigs succumb when inoculated subcutaneously with 

 one-tenth cubic centimetre ; pigeons require a still larger dose 

 about three-quarters of a cubic centimetre. Swine are killed by the 

 intravenous injection of one to two cubic centimetres of a recent 

 bouillon culture, but, as a rule, do not succumb to subcutaneous 

 injections. Cultures recently obtained from diseased animals are 

 more virulent than those which have been propagated for a consider- 

 able time in artificial media. 



Smith has described a variety of the hog-cholera bacillus obtained during- 

 an epidemic in which the disease was of longer duration about four weeks 

 than is usual, and in which, there was commonly found at the autopsy a 

 diphtheritic inflammation of the mucous membrane of the stomach. This 

 bacillus differed from the typical form by being somewhat larger and in 

 forming considerably larger colonies in gelatin plates two or three times 

 as large. It also produced a greater opacity in peptonized bouillon, and in 

 general showed a more vigorous growth in various nutrient media. It dif- 

 fered also in its pathogenic power, as tested upon rabbits, causing death at a 

 later date or not at all ; and in fatal cases the swelling of the spleen and 

 necrotic foci in the liver, produced by the first-described species, were absent. 



Bang (1892) has obtained a bacillus from infected swine in Denmark 

 which corresponds with the American hog-cholera bacillus. In chronic 

 forms of the disease pneumonia and an extensive diphtheritic process in the 

 intestines occurred as a complication. This was found to be due to another 

 bacillus, called by Bang "vacuole-bacillus." This produced a fatal pleuro- 

 pneumonia when injected into the lungs in pigs. According to Bang, his 

 "vacuole-bacillus" is without doubt identical with the swine-plague bacillus 

 of Salmon and Smith, and the disease of swine studied by him was a mixed 

 infection. The necrotic changes in the intestine, found in cases running a 

 chronic course, are believed by Bang to be due to still another bacillus his 

 " necrosis-bacillus." Affanassieff (1892) confirms the results previously ob- 

 tained by several independent observers as to the identity of the swine-plague 

 bacillus of Salmon and Smith with the LofBer-Schiitz bacillus. The only 

 difference observed was a difference in pathogenic virulence the bacillus 



