Studies in Forage Poisoning V. 81 



Local areas of ramification and injection, merging into local 

 areas of well-defined enteritis and ecchymoses. Portions of 

 mesentery injected and accompanying lymphatics swollen. The 

 mucosa of caecum easily displaced on pressure, with areas of 

 diffuse hemorrhagic enteritis. Scattered punctate hemorrhages 

 on the inner wall of the colon and the lining easily removed. 

 Capsule of kidney injected and easily removed ; parenchymatous 

 tissue soft and friable. Other organs apparently normal. 



An Anaerobic Organism Isolated from an Oat Hay. 



It has been noted that two barrels of the oat forage orig- 

 inally associated with a definite outbreak of forage poisoning 

 and later proved to contain the etiologic factor of forage poison- 

 ing, were preserved from March 10th, 1915, until January 12th, 

 1917. At this time an experimental horse receiving wholesome 

 feed succumbed after freely consuming water from the barrel 

 in which the contaminated oats were immersed. On January 

 16th, 1917, samples of the water which had evidently proved 

 fatal to horse No. 91 were siphoned directly from the barrel into 

 sterile amber glass bottles. The bottles were carefully sealed 

 and placed at a temperature of 42 to 45 F. From the result 

 in experimental horse No. 91 referred to elsewhere it seemed 

 evident that the toxic principle in the oats was water soluble 

 and would therefore be contained in the water samples. 1 to 

 2 cc. of the water were given to a series of guinea pigs by the 

 mouth with negative results. After heating the water to de 7 

 stroy non-spore forming organisms; dilutions were planted in 

 broth and placed under anaerobiosis at room temperature, pro- 

 tected from light. Dilutions were made from broth cultures in 

 gelatin plates. Various colonies developing on the gelatin 

 plates were transferred to broth. Those developing favorably 

 and possessing morphological significance were administered to 

 small animals. Many anaerobes thus isolated from the water 

 proved non-pathogenic to guinea pigs when administered by the 

 mouth. However, one of the anaerobic organisms isolated from 

 the water in question (for convenience referred to by the labo- 

 ratory index go-6) was found to closely resemble the organism 



