6 BULLETIN 65, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
in the brains of horses which have died of dourine, swamp fever, influ- 
enza, etc., that we have come to consider these organisms as repre- 
senting an agonal invasion from the intestines without causal con- 
nection with any definite disease. Like Grimm, we have found some - 
of these same cocci in the brains of horses that died of forage poison- 
ing, and we have also recovered other species, all of which have been 
inoculated into experiment horses by various methods, including © 
intravenous, subcutaneous, subdural, and intralumbar injection, as 
well as by spraying the nasal mucous membrane, with the result that 
two horses died following a nasal douche and a subdural injection, 
respectively, of a pure culture of two different cocci. The post- 
‘mortem on the former showed death to have been due to a strangu- 
lated intestine, while the second animal died suddenly without evinc- 
ing any characteristic symptoms, although extremely nervous. Post- 
mortem examination showed an absence of any pathological lesions 
posterior to the brain.- The dura mater was inflamed and distended 
- with a yellowish exudate. The veins and capillaries of the cerebrum 
were dilated and engorged with blood, while the third ventricle con- 
tained a tumor thesize of awalnut. Although thesame organism which 
was injected was recovered from the brain tissue, other horses injected 
with the recovered culture have continued to remain in a healthy 
condition. 
With the view of obtaining additional information regarding the 
significance of these various cocci to the disease in question, an 
antigen was prepared from a culture of each organism and tested 
against the blood serum obtained from affected horses in the field 
for complement fixation and agglutination as in glanders. In no 
case was a positive reaction to these tests obtained by the use of any 
of the antigens prepared from the different cocci isolated from dis- 
eased horses. In this connection it may be noted that from the 
number of affections of the horse produced by coccoid organisms, 
this animal appears to be particularly susceptible to their action. 
Another cause has been suggested for this disease in the finding 
of nuclear inclusions by Joest and Degen in the nerve cells of the 
hippocampus. These inclusions are similar to the Negri bodies of 
rabies, and are rounded or oval in shape, staining intensely with 
eosin. A large number of brains from affected horses have been 
examined in our laboratory for these bodies, but thus far with nega- 
tive results, although the same technique applied to the brains of 
rabid animals brings out the Negri bodies with great clearness. 
There remains one widely accepted theory as to the causation of 
the disease which must be given consideration, namely, fungi on 
the feed. While most investigators have obtained negative results 
when feeding experiment animals upon moldy feed, some few have 
reproduced the disease by such feeding. Thus, Mayo reports that a 
