CHAPTER IV 
BACTERIOLOGICAL NOTES 
One of the first to write intelligently at any length on 
the subject of distemper was Jenner, who in 1809, while 
recognising the true infectious nature of the disease, was 
the first to differentiate between distemper and rabies, 
and also the first to show that it was not communicable 
to man. Later this was disputed by many of the best 
writers. 
Since that time many have been actively engaged in 
attempting to discover the etiology of the disease, and 
of them all, the primary investigator to discover an 
organism was— 
Semmer, who in 1875 isolated a particularly short and 
narrow bacillus in the blood of sick dogs a few hours 
after death. He concluded this was the causal organism, 
and was strengthened in his opinion by— 
Laosson’s researches: in 1882, in which a micrococcus 
and a bacillus were found, and cultivated in broth; with 
the mixed culture he claimed to have transmitted the 
disease. 
Krajewski, in 1881, observed micrococci in tissues and 
blood. mS 
Rabe (1883) found uniform globules of mi¥ygte size, 
sometimes lying together in heaps (staphylococci), or 
connected in twos or fours (diplococci), or in rows of 
four or five (streptoco¢ci), estainable dark blue with 
methylene viotef.~He, however, could not reproduce the 
disease ; and* Friedberger, who confirmed his findings, 
left the specificity of the organisms an open question. 
Mathis (1887) found a diplococcus in the fluid of the 
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