OTHER GERM DISEASES AMONG ANIMALS. 285 



to agriculture. Only a brief mention of these is possible, but the 

 following list includes all of the important diseases of domesticated 

 animals, that have been proved to be caused by microscopic 

 parasites. 



Swine Plague, Fowl Cholera, Rabbit Septicemia, Rinder- 

 seuche, Wildseuche (B. pleurosepticus) . These names are ap- 

 plied to a variety of affections of animals, but they all appear 

 to be essentially the same thing. The cause is a bacterium which 

 was first identified by Pasteur as the cause of fowl cholera and 

 later identified as the inciting agent in all these diseases. They 

 are all contagious and often produce considerable havoc among 

 domestic animals. The names given indicate the variety of animals 

 attacked. Rinderseuche is the name given when it attacks cattle, 

 and Wildseuche when it attacks deer; septic pleuropneumonia and 

 pneumoenteritis are also names applied to it. 



The bacterium causing all these diseases is a short rod, so short 

 as sometimes to be called a Micrococcus. The cultures obtained 

 from different animals have been given different names, B. bovi- 

 septicus, B. suisepticus, etc., but the most careful study fails to 

 show differences sufficient to warrant their separation, and the 

 name B. pleurisepticus has been suggested as indicating its relation 

 to its many hosts. While it attacks many animals it is, so far as 

 known, harmless to man. It produces a type of disease quite similar 

 to the forms of blood-poisoning which have been, in medical practice, 

 called septicemia. It is extremely fatal to some animals, fowls 

 and rabbits succumbing to its action with extreme rapidity and 

 with almost absolute certainty. Among the larger animals its 

 course is not necessarily so fatal, but in all those referred to above 

 the disease is a serious one and almost always fatal. When 

 attacking the hog it produces one form of swine plague, this being 

 the type of the disease most commonly found among domestic 

 animals, and the one which will usually be most interesting to the 

 agriculturist. 



Hog Cholera. (B. suipestifer.) The hog cholera is a disease 

 related to the last, although clearly distinct from it, and is one 

 which develops spontaneously in swine only. It is quite common 



