ETIOLOGICAL MOMENT OF AMERICAN SWINE PLAGUE. 
63 
clean, two-ounce vial, closed by a tightly fitting glass stopper, was 
kept at a constant temperature of from 90 to 100° F.”—p. 378, 
Report of the Department of Agriculture, 1879. 
Anyone the least acquainted with the methods of obtaining 
pure~cultivations of micro-organism will see that it would be next 
to impossible to obtain the same in any such way. Such a medium 
as “milk just drawn from the cow” invariably contains a mixture 
of germ life. There is no mention made of the preparatory 
cleansing and disinfection of the teats of the cow or the hands of 
the milker even, and the same is true of the proper sterilization 
of the “perfectly clean two ounce vial.” 
The apparent crudeness of Dr. Detmers’ methods of investiga¬ 
tion must not be attributed to any want of knowledge on his part, 
for it was really magnificent, considering the state of our know¬ 
ledge at the time he worked, and especially when we consider the 
condition of instruction at the German veterinary schools at the 
time he studied. My admiration for Dr. Detmers’ scientific abili¬ 
ties is still more augmented when I consider the very poor labora- 
torial conveniences that he enjoyed. 
In introducing same quotations of his work, which at first 
sight would appear to be with the purpose of detracting from its 
value, I desire to say that my real purpose is quite the contrary. 
These quotations have a two-fold value : 
1. They show how great the quality of his work was. 
2. They show how much we have improved in the methodic 
of bacteriological investigation, and are also instructive as show¬ 
ing how errors may be avoided in the future. 
Oil-immersion lenses and the Abbe condensor had not been 
perfected at that time, hence Detmers did his work with water 
immersion lenses, and he tells us with the simplicity of an honest 
man that one day, “January 27, in the afternoon, he filtered some 
pulmonal exudation from a pig that had died of swine plague, 
through several pieces of paper, for the purpose of freeing it from 
the bacillus germs which it contained. The filtering was done on 
a small table in the corner of the room, and tiie apparatus was 
left standing on that table with the wet papers (4) in the funnel 
after the filtrate had been removed. In the evening the latter 
