Contagious Abortion. 421 



Nocard found the bacillus coli commune in an aborted calf, 

 which had died in utero and precipitated abortion. 



Galtier, on the contrary, conveyed the disease variously by the 

 inoculation or feeding of the milk or abortion membranes to 

 sheep, goat, pig, rabbit and Guinea pig, and accordingly claims 

 that the general system of the pregnant animal is infected, and 

 that the germs can be conveyed through the blood to the womb. 

 In deducing this from feeding experiments he appears to make 

 too little account of the ready infection through proximity of the 

 anus and vulva. 



Chester, of Delaware Agri. Experiment Station, found in the 

 foetal membranes of aborting cows a bacillus, which in form and 

 habits of growth closely resembled the bacillus coli commune. 

 In the fermentation test, however, it showed a marked difference. 



Inoculated on rabbits it did not prove fatal. Injected into the 

 vagina of a healthy pregnant cow it caused slight catarrhal dis- 

 charge for four or five days, but the calf was carried to full time 

 six and a half months later. 



Bang found in aborting cows, between the womb and foetal 

 membranes, a considerable odorless, gelatinoid, liquid exudate, 

 and some pus cells. There was active catarrh of the uterine 

 mucosa which often carried the disease over into the next preg- 

 nancy. In the exudate he found a number of very minute non- 

 motile bacilli ( I to 3/*) , which stained, readily with aniline colors, 

 excepting in a vacuole or nucleus which was less deeply pig- 

 mented. This bacillus grew well in serum-glycerine bouillon, 

 and more sparingly in serum-gelatine agar. In the latter it 

 showed a remarkable peculiarity which serves to identify it read- 

 ily from other microbes, in two successive zones of luxuriant 

 growth at two different depths, with an intermediate clear zone, 

 in which little or no growth took place. It seems to prefer a 

 greater or lesser supply of oxygen (21 or 90 : 100) without being 

 able to adapt itself to the intermediate condition. As already 

 stated it produced abortion in the cow in 21 days after injection 

 into the vagina. It also induced uterine catarrh and abortion in 

 €wes, goats, rabbits, Guinea pigs and mares when injected into 

 the vagina. From the vagina it usually reaches the womb, but 

 .not always. In several cases in which it was injected subcutem 

 •or intravenously it caused hyperthermia, and was later found in 

 abundance in the interior of the womb and foetal membranes, and 



