Annual Report of the Royal Veterinary College. 139 
of this pig as ascertained by Captain Russell was as follows : — It 
belonged to a labouring man, who had purchased it in February 
1892, when it was about three months old. At that time it 
appeared quite healthy, and it continued to thrive until the month 
of October, when it fell ill. It ceased to feed, and a large purple 
patch made its appearance on the animal’s right side. This patch 
subsequently turned almost black, and later it became dry and scaly, 
like a part that had been blistered. Eventually the diseased patch 
of skin reacquired its normal appearance, save that it remained 
of a deeper red than the other parts. The pig, however, did not 
recover : it lay constantly, refused to eat, and died five weeks after 
the beginning of the illness. No history of contagion or infection 
was obtainable. 
There can be little doubt that this was a case of swine erysipelas, 
but the proof that the disease is not unknown in Great Britain 
does not rest solely on this single observation. More than 
two years ago Dr. Murray and Mr. Clement Stephenson, of 
Newcastle, demonstrated the presence of these small bacilli in the 
diseased cardiac valves of pigs supposed to have suffered from 
swine fever, and in the latter part of 1891 the writer of this report 
published an account of three similar cases. Moreover, in two of 
these three cases pure cultures of the bacilli were obtained from 
the diseased hearts, and complete proof of the identity of these 
organisms with the germ of swine erysipelas was thus furnished. 
These observations make it certain that swine fever is not the 
only disease of its class affecting pigs in this country, and the 
question arises, Is swine erysipelas a disease recently introduced 
with foreign pigs, or has its existence been overlooked for years 
past owing to its being confounded with swine fever? With 
a view to throwing some light on this point, and at Professor 
Brown’s suggestion, the College Museum was searched for specimens 
of pigs’ diseased hearts. Unfortunately, the collection was found 
to contain only one specimen of the kind, and that had no history 
attached to it, but bore the date 1888. This heart, of which an 
illustration is given on p. 140, had been preserved to show the before- 
described valvular excrescences, but without any suspicion that 
they were lesions caused by the bacillus of swine erysipelas. A 
microscopic examination, however, shows that these organisms are 
present in enormous numbers in the cauliflower growths. It is 
therefore certain that swine erysipelas has existed for years un- 
noticed among British pigs, and, considering its contagious and fatal 
character, the circumstance can hardly be accounted for on any 
other supposition than that it has been confounded with swine 
fever. Now that the existence of the disease has been proved, 
it is very likely that numerous outbreaks of it will be reported; 
for to anyone who keeps his mind open to the fact that every 
outbreak of infectious pig-disease is not necessarily swine fever the 
diagnosis of swine erysipelas presents little difficulty. The prin- 
cipal clinical and pathological distinctions between the two diseases 
may be summarised as follows : — 
