90 Bulletin No. 207. 



consuming the water over a period of 30 consecutive days, but 

 in each case these animals succumbed after ingesting 2 cc. 

 broth culture of the pathogenic organism isolated from the oat 

 hay water. In horses Nos. 1050, 1051, 1052, 1053, 1054, 1055, 

 and 1056 drinking the oat hay water a protection was possibly 

 provided by the subcutaneous injections of botulism antitoxic 

 serum. These animals likewise proved tolerant to the inges- 

 tion of 2 cc. broth culture of the organism isolated from the oat 

 hay water at the end of 30 consecutive days' exposure to the oat 

 hay water. Horse No. 97 received a single injection of serum 

 immune to B. botulinus, subcutaneously, but succumbed after 

 drinking the oat hay water from February 28th to March 3rd. 

 On autopsy lesions were observed similar to those previously 

 recorded as the result of consuming the oat hay water. Mule 

 No. 106 was possibly protected when consuming the oat hay 

 water by the subcutaneous injection of botulism antitoxic serum, 

 but succumbed after receiving 2 cc. broth culture of the patho- 

 genic organism isolated from the oat hay water. The symptoms 

 observed in this animal were not in accord with those observed 

 in animals fatally infected as the result of drinking the water 

 or ingesting the organism isolated from the water, and upon 

 autopsy pneumonic lesions were observed. 



Discussion. 



An anaerobic bacillus recovered from a horse fatally stricken 

 subsequently to drinking water in which a poisonous oat hay 

 had been immersed, and a similar bacillus isolated directly 

 from the water in which the oat hay in question had been im- 

 mersed proved capable of causing death in guinea pigs, horses 

 and mules, after ingestion. It is evident that the origin of the 

 anaerobe from the horse and the anaerobe from the oat hay 

 water, discussed in this paper, is directly associated with a 

 forage that produced forage poisoning. The clinical symptoms 

 and anatomic alterations observed in animals experimentally 

 infected by these organisms present a striking analogy to 

 the symptoms and lesions presented by horses and mules fatally 

 afflicted as the result of ingesting the oats, the straw, the water 

 in which the grain was immersed, and the foreign material 



