SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
883 
ducts. The bacilli of hog cholera were slightly larger and more 
elongated than those of swine plague, and were provided with 
flagelloe, which enabled them to move rapidly in liquids, while 
the germs of swine plague had no such appendages and were 
involuntarily moved about by the liquid in whieh they floated. 
The essayist went on at length to describe the differences be¬ 
tween these two germs, their mode of invasion and the dift'erent 
methods of producing them experimentally. After enumerat¬ 
ing the symptoms common to the two diseases, Mr. Hammond 
said that although the symptoms were not noticeably different, 
yet frequently, however, the lungs are extensively inflamed in 
swine plague, and in that condition the breathing is more op¬ 
pressive and labored and the cough more frequent and prompt. 
The course of the disease varies from one to 4:wo days to two to 
three weeks. As to the diagnoses, he said that after enumerat¬ 
ing the variotis symptoms presented, we could readily come to 
a conclusion that either one or both the diseases were present. 
Prognosis unfavorable, especially if the animals were very 
susceptible and the contagion very virulent. The loss some¬ 
times reaehed 95 to 100 per cent., but at other times if the ani¬ 
mals were more capable of resisting the contagion, it did not 
exceed 20 to 60 per cent., but what animals did recover from 
the disease often remained lean, stunted in growth, or never be¬ 
come really healthy hogs. As to the treatment of the disease, 
he said that the use of anti-toxic serum appeared at present to 
be a much more promising method, combined with sanitary 
regulations, of diminishing the losses. The serum is pre¬ 
pared by inoeulating horses and cattle with cultures of the 
diseased germs, and repeating these inoculations with gradually 
increasing doses until the animals have attained a proper degree 
of immunity. The blood of such animals injected under the 
skin possesses the power of curing sick hogs and of preventing 
well ones from taking the disease. Unless the blood is to be 
used immediately after drawn, which is not often the case, it is 
allowed to coagulate and the liquid portion or serum is separated 
and preserved for future use, so that we have every reason to be¬ 
lieve that in the serum we have a practical method of preventing 
the greater part of the losses from these diseases; but it would have 
to be tested on a larger scale before absolute assurance could be 
given, but hoped that all doubts would be cleared up by the 
experiments planned for 1899. The essayist then enumerated 
the characteristic post-mortem lesions of the disease, conclud¬ 
ing by drawing attention to the fact that in hog cholera the 
