436 
TWENTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING 
my own early investigations of Texas fever, where I got most de¬ 
cided results by inoculation, that these results were not, as I sup¬ 
posed, Texas fever, but they were the result of inoculating with 
organisms which produced a malignant type of a different disease. 
So if you are going to diagnose diseases to-day of the nature of 
Texas fever, you must know what the germ is, and you must he 
able to recognize the germ when you see it, without the possibil¬ 
ity of confusion with other micro-organisms; and then when you 
examine the liquids or the tissues of the affected animals, you can 
ascertain positively wdiether your animal is affected with a partic¬ 
ular organism or not. So long as there is confusion in regard to 
the nature of the germ of Texas fever, so long must there be un¬ 
certainty in the diagnosis. When we find this peculiar parasite 
in the red blood corpuscles of animals, we feel sure that it is dis¬ 
eased. We have not studied any of the diseases of animals in this 
country in which there is any such micro-organisms found in any 
such location as that. If there is a germ in the bile as well as 
in the blood, if there is a germ found in the tissues, in the nature 
of a bacteria, he is uncertain whether that germ is what I de¬ 
scribed in 1880, or they are the bacilli or bacterise which Dr. 
Billings discovered—the short bacillus, more lately, or the long 
bacillus. Then there must be doubt in regard to the diagnosis of 
the disease, no matter how carefully investigations are made. 
At present, when we diagnose a case of Texas fever, there are 
two points we take into consideration, and we feel sure if we find 
those points that we are working with one and the same disease: 
one is the presence of this germ in the red blood corpuscle, and 
the other is the rapid diminution of the corpuscles themselves. 
Dr. Paquin is certain, he says, that he can diagnose Texas fever, 
but he does not tell us how he is certain. He does not describe 
definitely and distinctly the germ which he asserts he finds in one 
of the animals affected with Texas fever, and in the young calves 
as soon as they are born, or before they are born, from Texas 
mothers. I think that is an important point which Dr. Paquin 
should have brought out clearly and distinctly if he expects any 
scientists to accept conclusions of so much importance and so far- 
reaching as those which he has set forth in his report. 
