598 
SOCIETY MEETINGS. 
ing into consideration the time required for the completion of 
their life cycle, they certainly work out less destruction individ¬ 
ually than some of the reasoning animals, who are subject to the 
same biological laws. 
Micro-organisms are of great interest to the veterinarian, and 
every discovery that relates to their life history, or to the effects 
produced by them within the tissues of the higher orders of ani¬ 
mals, is sure to be a help in understanding the course of the dis¬ 
ease produced by the particular form under consideration, it must 
produce more satisfactory results from treatment given such pa¬ 
tients, and leads us to more effective prophylactic measures. 
After reading a work on bacteriology for a time, one is apt 
to think that every one of the numerous fleshly ills must be 
caused by some form of microbe, and we feel that the proper 
thing for the medical fraternity to do is to wage a war of exter¬ 
mination against the entire list of unicellular life. It is well 
not to be too hasty. Further research will show us that only a 
small percentage of bacteria are harmful, the greater part being 
not only harmless but of the greatest value to the advanced 
forms of life. Heaving the useful ones, we will confine ourselves 
to those that produce discomfort, disease or death, when intro¬ 
duced under favorable conditions into the animal economy. 
These are the pathogenic micro-organisms, and nearly all of 
them belong to the vegetable kingdom. They are usually 
grouped from a strictly morphological standpoint, but it would 
suit the requirements of the investigator into pathological con¬ 
ditions far better were they grouped according to their effects. 
It is well to know what is meant by bacili, cocci and spirilla, 
but it is better to know what to expect from the various members 
of these groups. 
As a rule it may be stated that their deleterious effects are 
due to poisons produced by them, but there are a few excep¬ 
tions. The bacillus anthracis often produces its most serious 
effects through the remarkable rapidity of its reproduction, and 
the consequent gorging and choking of the vascular system, 
rather than by direct poisoning. 
Pyogenic cocci may act in the same way. 
Of the various diseases due to micro-organisms, hog-cholera 
brings the greatest money loss to the stock-owners of the coun¬ 
try ; tuberculosis is the most feared by the well-informed, and 
rabies, assuming its cause to be a germ, is the most capable of 
filling the minds of the masses with a vague dread and terror. 
Hog-cholera may serve us as a type of the severest bacterial 
