DISCOVERY OF THE GERM OF SWINE-PLAGUE. 
551 
“ All however, seem to agree, that those sehizomycetes classed 
by them under the name of ‘bacillus’do not form clusters or 
colonies (rasen, zoogloea-masses, gliacoccus, orcocoglia), and do 
not undergo metamorphoses from globular to rod-shaped schizo- 
mycetes, two things decidedly characteristic of the microscopic 
parasites of the sehizomycetes family as found in swine-plague; 
consequently the name adopted, bacillus, was not well chosen and 
is not suitable.”* 
As I have shown elsewhere,f the two points referred to would 
not exclude an organism from the genus bacillus. The best- 
known bacilli certainly develop from resting spores of an oval 
form, as seen under the microscope; some of these spores ap¬ 
proach very closely to the globular, and, if they should be perfect 
spheres, the classification would not be affected in the least. The 
other point—that an organism, multiplying as a micrococcus, 
after a time develops into a rod-shaped body—is an idea that, al¬ 
though it is persistently pressed in some quarters, has never been 
accepted by the best authorities, and is no more true of the organ¬ 
ism in question than of other forms of micrococci, as I have as¬ 
sured myself by long series of cultivations. The fact of greatest 
importance to the present inquiry is, that up to this time Dr. Det- 
mers considered the organism of swine-plague to be rod-shaped in 
its developed form. This supplemental report, in which the first 
doubts are expressed in regard to the organism being a real bacil¬ 
lus, was dated six weeks after the appearance of Megnin’s paper, 
and was not distributed for seven or eight months subsequent to 
this. It is to be remembered, also, that in none of the above in¬ 
vestigations were any sufficient precautions taken to exclude 
atmospheric germs from the liquids examined, and no pure culti¬ 
vations were made. It was therefore a matter of considerable 
doubt whether the organisms described were really in the blood 
as it circulated in the living animal, or whether they were intro¬ 
duced post mortem. 
The third report of Dr. Detmers bears the date of Dec. 4, 
1880. X In this it was stated that the “ swine-plague schizo- 
* Loc. cit., p. 60. 
t Special report, No. 34, p. 68. 
J Special report, No. 34, pp. 158-195. 
