16 CANINE DISTEMPER 
Dr. N. S. Ferry, an American veterinary surgeon, 
isolated the first pure culture of what he contended was 
the: causative factor of the disease. To this organism 
Ferry gave the name Bacillus bronchicanis, which name 
he afterwards changed to B. bronchisepticus. 
Two other workers—namely, Dr. M‘Gowan of Edin- 
burgh, and Dr. Torrey of New York—also independently 
isolated the identical organism, but priority must be 
given to Ferry, who first described the bacillus in detail 
in the American Veterinary Review for July, 1910, and 
Journal of Infectious Diseases, Jurie, 1911, and later in the 
Veterinary Journal, July, 1914. Ferry found that in the 
early stages of canine distemper it was possible in 
almost every case to isolate B. bronchisepticus from the 
smaller bronchi, and frequently from the trachea. Ata 
somewhat later stage of the disease it was found that in 
the larger bronchi and in the trachea it was contaminated 
with pus organisms. 
He declares that Koch’s postulates have been fulfilled, 
inasmuch as (1) the micro-organism is present and dis- 
coverable in every case of: the disease; (2) it can be 
cultivated in a pure culture; (3) inoculation from such 
culture will reproduce the disease in susceptible animals ; 
and (4) it can be recovered from such animals and again 
grown in a pure culture. 
Torrey produced the disease experimentally by blow- 
ing the dried organisms, or infected dust, into the nasal 
passages with powder blowers. The symptoms developed 
‘included rhinitis and bronchitis, with persistent cough, 
typical bronchopneumonia, vomiting, bloody diarrhcea, 
conjunctivitis, and, in three instances, the appearance of 
a typical pustular eruption of the skin. He concludes : 
“ The further evidence on which rests the claims that 
the B. bronchisepticus is the etiological factor in canine 
- distemper may be summarised as follows: (1) Dogs 
