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FRANK S. BILLINGS. 
lachen Gesundheitsamte, Berlin, 1886,” though it was first seen 
and partially described by Loeffler in 1882, but Schuetz has the 
credit of establishing its connection with the German swine plague 
beyond dispute. 
The discovery of Schuetz is of much importance and interest 
to us in the United States, because of the exact morpho, and 
cultivatio-morphological and biological resemblances; in so far, 
actual identity between the organism described by him, and the 
one described by Detmers in 1880, and independently discovered 
by me, and unquestionably proved to be the sole and direct cause 
of swine plague proper in this country, have been proven by inocu¬ 
lations with pure cultivations obtained by the most exact methods 
of bacteriological investigation. 
Schuetz says : “ The bacteria of the German swine plague have 
an oval form, and are very easily colored in methylen blue, gen¬ 
tian violet, etc. When colored in a solution of gentian violet 
they show an uncolored space in their center which is surrounded 
by a layer of colored substance. The quantity of this colored 
substance is greater at the poles of the organism, so that its ends 
appear more strongly colored than the middle part. When 
strongly colored they appear of a homogeneous blue. 
“ As these objects occupy an intermediate position between 
micrococci and bacilli, they should be looked upon as bacteria. 
“They are 0.0012 mms. and 0.0004 to 0.0005 wide; their 
length is from one-third to one-half that of the diameter of red 
blood-cells of the mouse. 
“ They proliferate as follows: 
“At first they increase in length and become about double as 
long as wide, and have distinctly rounded ends, and color in the 
same manner as the micro-organism in septicaemia in rabbits, so 
that from a third to a half of the body presents itself as an un¬ 
colored space between the distinctly colored ends. More exact 
observation shows that the colored ends are connected together by 
a band of the same substance extending along the sides of the 
organism. 
“ The ends become separated from one another by the disap¬ 
pearance of the middle piece. They at first appear round, but 
