SYNOPSIS OF CONTINENTAL VETERINARY JOURNALS. 228 
the commencement of December I forwarded it to M. Pas¬ 
teur, who was good enough in a letter, dated 16th January, 
1879, to inform me that after having cultivated and inocu¬ 
lated with it, he allows that it is a distinct species, which 
statement he confirmed before the Academy of Medicine at 
the sitting of 4th March, 1879. With regard to the 
engraving which represents the Bacteria, these small 
bodies do not resemble anthrax parasites which are always 
more or less flexuous or undulatory. Besides, staff-like 
Bacteridia do not occur; the rectilinear character especially 
belongs to the Bacteria of putrefaction, which appear thus 
when in a state of repose. The flexed state of Bacteridia 
appears to me so characteristic, after some thousands of 
examinations, that I deem it their most marked optical 
character. M. Megnin is in error when he says that Bac¬ 
teridia can live only in blood of which the temperature 
does not exceed 36°—38°. The normal temperature of the 
rabbit is never lower than 39°, and often rises to 41°. 
Ovine and bovine animals almost always have a tempera¬ 
ture of 39° or 40°. And it is rare to find the temperature 
of birds only 40°, for it generally is 48°—44°. At the latter 
temperature in cultivation fluids the Bacteridium is quies¬ 
cent, but nevertheless preserves all its vitality. It can even 
sustain a higher temperature, as M. Davaine has shown. 
For my part I find the following fact in my notes. The 
wick of a spirit lamp which heated my stove having been 
raised more than necessary, the thermometer of the warm 
chamber in which the long bacteridial filaments were mul¬ 
tiplying for two hours, remained at least at 47°. When I 
reduced the temperature to 38° the Bacteridia continued to 
increase and gave numerous spores!” We will now give 
some extracts from M. Perroncito’s memoire, which will 
allow us to determine the share he has had in determina¬ 
tion of the nature and discovery of fowl cholera. “ The blood 
is always coagulated and the clot which it forms is almost 
always hard and of a reddish-brown colour ; generally the 
globules are of various forms and diameters, or forms which 
indicate their state of proliferation or arrest of development. 
The epizooty, then, is not of an anthracoid nature, for we 
never met with Bacteria in the blood, which also is not 
liquid, and the flesh is not so flaccid as that of anthrax 
victims. I have never proved that the disease is trans¬ 
missible to man by the use of the flesh of diseased animals, 
nor to the dog by inoculation with the blood of animals 
which succumbed to the disorder. It has no influence on 
the health of cattle. Their diseases do not seem to rage 
