92 ADRIEN LOIR. 



gestion of the intestines with petechia. Petechia at the base 

 of the heart, spleen black and small, lungs red. The blood of this 

 rabbit when placed in broth, gave a cultivation of the same 

 microbe in twenty-four hours. This microbe develops readily 

 when placed in gelatine, in which it produces a white train along 

 the inoculation puncture. The microbe appears to be exclusively 

 aerobic, that is to say, that it cannot be cultivated in inert gases 

 such as carbonic acid. 



Experiments of Contagion. 

 I have attempted to ascertain whether it was possible to trans- 

 mit the disease by cohabitation. Up to the present time out of 

 six rabbits exposed to contagion by placing them in a cage with 

 the dead bodies of other rabbits which had died of the disease, 

 one has succumbed to the effect of the malady after five days. 



Judging from the appearance of the microbe as seen through 

 the microscope, from the aspect of its cultivation, and from the 

 physiological reaction which it produces in animals, I believe that 

 I have discovered one which is the cause of a spontaneous disease 

 in rabbits not hitherto described, and it is from this point of view 

 that I have thought it would prove of interest to the Royal 

 Society. 



While discussing a matter relating to rabbits, I would like to 

 direct attention to the fact that, contrary to the generally accepted 

 belief in Europe, the Australian bush rabbit is smaller than the 

 rabbit sold in the markets of Paris. I give below the weights 

 which I find entered in my note-book, of the rabbits used for 

 experimental purposes at the Pasteur Institute during the years 

 1886 and 1887 : 



2 Kilog. 820 gram. . . . about ... 6 lbs. 1 oz. 

 2 „ 480 „ ... „ ... 5 lbs. 2 ozs. 



2 „ 700 „ ... „ ... 6 lbs. 



1 „ 800 „ ... „ ... 4 lbs. 



These rabbits were chosen at hazard, for the purpose of certain 

 experiments which I was then making, from among the rabbits 

 which are always kept on hand in M. Pasteur's Laboratory. 



