1 882.] A Pathogenic Schizophyte of the Hog. 195 



It is probable that the formation in the western localities men- 

 tioned is mostly sand. Near Carson City, Nevada, it consists of 

 a light-buff friable calcareous sandstone. 



This is the Upper Pliocene of King and the Post-pliocene of 

 various writers.. 



A PATHOGENIC SCHIZOPHYTE OF THE HOG. 1 



BY PROFESSOR H. J. DETMERS. 



ABOUT twenty-five years ago Professors Brauell and Pollender 

 in Dorpat, Russia, made an important discovery, which, 

 though at first not considered as of much significance, soon led 

 to investigations, the results of which have already revolutionized 

 the aetiology of contagious and infectious diseases. Brauell and 

 Pollender, and soon afterwards also Dr. Leisering in Dresden, 

 discovered in the blood of man and beast, affected with anthrax 

 or splenic fever, an infinite number of exceedingly fine, appa- 

 rently solid, almost transparent, straight and motionless, rod- 

 shaped bodies (cf. Virchow's Archiv. fur Pathol., Anat. und 

 Physiol., und fur Klinische Medicin, XI, 2). They called them 

 staebchenfoermige Koerpev (Bacilli), but left it undecided whether 

 the same bear a casual connection with the morbid process, consti- 

 tute a product of the same, or are merely accidental. Still, find- 

 ing these Bacilli in every fatal case of anthrax, Brauell and Pol- 

 lender considered their presence as something characteristic, and 

 as of great diagnostic and prognostic value. As early as i860 

 the relation of these Bacilli to anthrax formed a topic of discus- 

 sion in the annual meeting of the Veterinary Society of the 

 Grand Duchy of Oldenburg. Later investigations, but especially 

 those by Davaine, Koch, Cohn, Pasteur, Toussaint, and more 

 recently by Dr. Hans Buchner, in Munich, have demonstrated be- 

 yond a doubt that these Bacilli, first discovered by Brauell and 

 Pollender of the Imperial Veterinary School of Russia at Dor- 

 pat, and first known as Brauell and Pollender's staebchenfoermige 

 Koerper, constitute the real and sole cause, and also the infec- 

 tious principle, of that terrible disease known as anthrax or 

 Milzbrand to the Germans, charbon to the French, and anthrax 

 or splenic fever to the English. About the same time, or soon 

 after Brauell and Pollender published their discovery, other simi- 

 1 Read before the Chicago Academy cf Sciences. 



