286 
Y. A. MOORE AKD F. L. KILBORNE. 
with the one which found its way in the body of the animal 
apparently by a more natural method, it seems desirable to 
point out the two sources from which the germ has been ob¬ 
tained, and the two conditions under which the disease has 
been described. 
In the outbreak from which Dr. Smith obtained the germ 
which he studied, eight rabbits were known to have perished. 
The lesions found in the animals that were examined were 
characterized by an inflammatory condition of one or more 
of the serous membranes. The bacteria were found in large 
numbers in both the inflammatory products and the various 
organs. They were rapidly fatal to rabbits when injected 
subcutaneously in small quantities of a pure culture. 
In the epizootic of this disease about to be described, the 
features that are worthy of special consideration are : (i) The 
very marked localization of the lesions ; (2) The relation that 
exists between the fatal form of the disease and a rhinitis (not 
necessarily contagious) ; (3) The feeble virulence of the speci¬ 
fic germ and its relation, morphologically, biologically and in 
its pathogenic properities, to attenuated swine plague bacteria- 
The study of the specific organism of this outbreak is of con¬ 
siderable interest in view of the fact that the writings of sev- • 
eral investigators tend to identify the bacillus of rabbit sep¬ 
ticaemia with that of swine plague , Schiveineseuche , Wildseuche , 
fowl cholera , a peculiar form of pneumonia in cattle, and possi¬ 
bly other forms. The ver} r close relation that exists between 
the specific bacteria of these diseases was very clearly set lorth 
by Dr. Theobald Smith as early as 1891.* The disease in rab¬ 
bits appears not to have heretofore been traced from primary 
lesions in the nasal mucosa to its more fatal localization on 
the serous membranes. 
\ 
HISTORY OF THE OUTBREAK. 
From time to time, one or more of the breeding rabbits at 
the Experiment Station have been observed to be suffering 
* Special report on the cause and prevention of swine plague. Department 
of Agriculture, 1891, p. 141. 
