CORRESPONDENCE. 
573 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
TWO DISTINCT SWINE PLAGUES CHARACTERIZED. 
Editor of American Veterinary Review: 
In connection with vour editorial on hog cholera in the De- 
cernber number of the Review, permit me to say that we have 
two diseases among hogs in this country which have heretofore 
been confounded as one plague. 
One of these maladies is characterized by hepatization of the 
lungs, and is often accompanied by cirrhosis of the liver. It is 
caused by a germ quite similar in appearance to those which pro¬ 
duce fowl cholera and rabbit septicaemia, though it is smaller. 
Germs of this form have been variously classed by good authori¬ 
ties as micrococci, bacteria, and bacilli. As between micrococci 
and bacilli, they certainly come nearer to the former. I wrote 
of the microbe of fowl cholera as a micrococcus, and have also 
referred to this swine disease germ in the same terms. This dis¬ 
ease is quite similar to the schweineseuche of Germany, and may 
possibly be practically identical with it. 
The second disease is the one described in the Report of the 
Bureau of Animal Industry for 1885. Its most characteristic 
lesion is the ulceration of the large intestine, particularly in the 
vicinity of the ileo-coecal valve. In a small portion of the cases 
there are lung lesions which consist of congestion and of extrav¬ 
asation of blood. In this disease I have not found that hepati¬ 
zation of the lung which exists in the other. The germ of this 
disease is a short rod, quite distinct in appearance from the one 
found in the first-mentioned disease. 
These two diseases are sometimes found to exist at the same 
time in the same herd of swine. The relation of these diseases 
to each other and the proportionate amount of loss caused by 
each, are questions for the future to decide. 
As to which of these diseases Dr. Billings has studied in Ne¬ 
braska, it is impossible to decide from his descriptions. The 
lung lesions which he mentions and the peculiar staining of the 
microbe would lead one to believe that he was working with a 
