THE ZOOLOGIST 



THIRD SERIES. 



Vol.XVL] SEPTEMBER, 1892. [No. 189. 



ON EPIDEMICS AMONGST MICE KEPT at the HYGIENIC 

 INSTITUTE at GREIFSWALD, and on the BEST MEANS 

 OF COMBATING a PLAGUE op FIELD MICE.* 



By Professoe F. Loeffler. 



Diseases amongst mice kept for experimental purposes in 

 scientific institutions are of somewhat rare occurrence, and I do 

 not know that the appearance of an epidemic amongst them has 

 ever previously been observed. I am, however, in a position to 

 give an account of what has occurred amongst the white mice 

 kept at this Hygien^p Institute within the last few years. These 

 are not merely of bacteriological interest, but, as I shall show, 

 they are of no little practical interest also. 



The stock of white mice at the Institute is kept in two 

 quadrangular glass cases, each about 40 cm. square, which are 

 covered with wide-meshed wire gauze. The mice are fed on oats 

 and pieces of bread softened by being dipped in water. The 

 bottom of the cages is covered with sawdust, over which a little 

 straw is scattered, so that the mice may hide in it. 



In July, 1889, the attendant informed me that while cleaning 

 a cage which contained about forty mice, he had found dead ones 

 amongst them for some little time. I immediately made an 

 inspection, and found three in a cage apparently diseased. They 

 were at once isolated, and died in the course of the two 



* Translated from the German ' Centralblatt fur Bakteriologie und 

 Parasitenkunde,' Band xi. pp. 129—141 (10 Feb. 1892). 



ZOOLOGIST.— SEPT. 1892. 2 p 



