268 DISEASES OF TRUE INFECTION 



influence on the res})iratorv passages. Vaccination of young animals l)y 

 means of the mucous secretions from animals affected with the disease 

 has been tried, and, as a rule, reproduces the disease. 



Semmer believes that he has definitely defined the contagious germ in 

 the blood, and also found it in the lungs, liver, and spleen, in the form of 

 small, dagger-shaped microbes, which he calls the "bacilli of distemper." 

 Rabe has found in the secretion of the nose and connective tissue, also in 

 the blood, small cocci, which accumulate in heaps, or were connected 

 together in small groups of three or four in a line, or they may hang to- 

 gether like a string of beads. These he considers the specific conta- 

 gious matter of distemper; but Friedberger does not agree with this 

 theory. Mathis found in the contents of the pustule a diplococcus which 

 could be colored with fuchsin. He used bouillon cultures of this diplo- 

 coccus for the inoculation of ten dogs. These dogs were affected by 

 symptoms which resembled very closely those of distemper. Marcone 

 and Meloni found a micrococcus in a dog which was affected by distem- 

 per, and considered that this was the true pathogenic agent, as it 

 produced the skin eruptions, broncho-pneumonia, and gastro-enteritis 

 in dogs which had been inoculated with pure cultures. Legrain and 

 Jafjuet obtained pure cultures of micrococci, Avhen held in certain media, 

 from fluid obtained from the pustules in the exanthema of distemper. 

 These were gathered together in the form of diplococci and chains. In 

 dogs vaccinated with these cultures only the skin eruption, with the 

 development of pustules, was seen, but the subjects so treated seemed to 

 enjoy immunity from the disease. Millais made cultures from the nasal 

 excretion of the dogs affected by distemper upon gelatinous media, of two 

 different bacilli, which mixed together, on inoculation, produced distem- 

 per. Galli-Valerio has isolated ovoid bacilli, 1.25-2.5/t. in length, which 

 grows freely in gelatin. These he found in abundance in the lungs and 

 central nervous system, but did not find them in the blood. The inocula- 

 tion of the cultivations produced characteristic distemper in puppies, but 

 did not give the same results in adult dogs. Jensen is of the opinion that 

 the pneumonia of distemper is caused by a streptococcus, but he has found 

 in the bronchial mucous membranes other bacteria, particularly the bac- 

 terium coli. Babes and Bazanesco, in two cases isolated from the lung, 

 liver and blood, found a very fine short motile bacillus, about 0.3 to 

 0.4/i. long. Nine young dogs were inoculated and seven died in from 

 ten to eighteen dayc of typical distemper, and the various oi'gans con- 

 tained the bacilli inoculated. Zelinski, Xeucki, and Karapinski, maintain 

 they are positive distemper is communicable to man, and give as the 

 mediary cause a microorganism similar to the white staphylococcus of 

 Resenbach, but differing from the same in its bio-chemical properties. 

 Taty and Jaccjuine have found in the spine and cord of a dog that died 



