«26 
VERANUS A. MOORE, B.S., M.D. 
Through the kindness of Dr. D. E. Salmon, I received, about 
two years ago, from Prof. Mereshkowsky,* of St. Petersburg, a 
culture of the bacillus which he found to produce a fatal disease 
in ground squirrels. A careful study of this organism shows 
that it belongs to the hog-cholera group, and at present I am 
studying a culture of the hog-cholera bacillus which appears to 
differ slightly from all those heretofore mentioned. Without 
entering into a discussion of the varieties of this species, suffice 
it to say that B. cholercB suis «, as described by Smith, stands, by 
virtue of the priority of its discovery, as the type. There are 
closely related to this a considerable number of important bac¬ 
teria, some of which have been described under quite different 
names. Although some of them have been found to approach in 
their biochemic properties B. coli coimminis the bacillus of hog 
cholera stands as a clearly defined and distinct species of patho¬ 
genic bacteria. 
The bacillus of swine plague and its varieties have not been so 
systematically classified. It is of interest to note, however, that 
the bacilli of rabbit septicaemia, fowl cholera and of certain 
diseases of cattle are thought to be identical with it. They 
have not been differentiated in their morphology or cultures. 
In grouping these bacteria the fact should be recognized that 
experimentally these bacteria are not interchangeable in their 
pathogenesis except for the rabbit. Thus an epizootic form of 
fowl cholera has not been produced with the swine plague 
or rabbit septicaemia bacilli. Further, it has been shown f 
that in the upper air passages of healthy swine, cattle, horses, 
cats and dogs there are bacteria not distinguishable in their 
cultural characters and their effect upon rabbits from theswine- 
*Centralblatt fur Bakteriologie und Parasitenkunde, XVll. (1895.) S. 742. 
f Smith. Special report on swine plague, 1891, p. 109. 
Moore. Appendix special report on swine plague, 1891, also Bulletin No. 3, Bu¬ 
reau of Animal Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1893, p. 38. 
Piocca. Centralbl. f. Bakteriol. u. Parasitenk. Bd. XL, S. 406. 
The investigations thus far made show these bacteria to be present in 48 per cent, 
of healthy swine, 80 per cent, of cattle, 50 per cent, of sheep, 16 per cent, of horses, 
90 per cent, of cats, and 30 per cent, of dogs. 
