The National tribune., 1881-12-10

PATHOLOGY OF SPLENIC FEVER IN CATTLE
We have, in former number, given an extract
from Dr. Cameron's lecture on the microscopic
organisms which connect themselves with chicken
cholera. The following remarks on splenic fever
are from the same source; the great Importance
to be attached to these explanations lies in the
probability that the fatal diseases of animals may
be greatly modified if indeed their usual fatal
endings may not be altogether prevented.
The organism, Bacillus anthracis, gives rise to
splenic fever in cattle. NJ. Pasteur found that it
too could be cultivated in chicken-broth. In its
case, however, preliminary difficulty was ex-
perienced. The class of organisms to which the
bacillus belongs multiply themselves in two
ways:-by subdivision of their cells into other
cells, which rapidly attain the dimensions of the
standard cells; and, secondly, by process analo-
gous to Towering in the higher classes of plants,
resulting in the production of spores or seeds.
So tenacious of life these spores in the case of
the bacillus of spenic fever, that N. Pasteur has
found them in full vitality in pits in which oxen
and sheep that had died of the disease had been
buried for ten years. He has proved, too, that
when thus buried, swallowed by earth-worms in
the soil from which these derive their nourish-
ment, they are brought by them to the surface,
and may thus give rise to fresh outbreaks of the
disease. He found that this was the case in an
instance where bullock had been buried in a
pit over six feet deep. His proofs were absolutely
conclusive. He placed sheep on the ground, and
they took the disease He separated the bacillus
germs from the earth by washing it, and multi
plying them by cultivation, found that by
incubation they produced the disease He found
them especially in the casts brought to the
surface by earth-wOrms, and in the contents of
their digestive organs; and he found further
that in districts where the soil was of such a
nature that earth-wOrms were rare, the disease
when accidentally imported, was not found to
spread.
Baron Seebach narrates various circumstances
which had induced him to think that the
enormous losses from splenic fever on his estate
were due to the propagation of the disease from
the graves of dead animals. But what confirmed
him in his suspicious was this: sheep which |
had died Of the disease had been buried in the !
corner of field on which crop of corn had |
subsequently been grown, and which, the follow |
ing year, was sown with clover. The attention |
OF the Baron had been accidentally directed to |
the place at the time; and one day in passing.
he remarked that the clover had grown with
exceptional luxuriance over the spot. A few
days later he noticed that some one had stolen
the clover which grew at that corner of the field,
The next day, woman on his property came to
him weeping, to tell him that her goat had inst
died, and her cow was very i'll. The disease was
found to be splenic fever; and the woman
confessed it was she who had stolen the clover.
and gave it to the unfortunate goat and cow.
But to return to NJ. Pasteur and his experi
ments in cultivating the bacillus of this disease.
He was not the man to allow himself to be foiled
By the perversity with which this organism
insisted when artifcially cultivated, on running
10 spores He found that by maintaining his
chicken broth at temperature of about 11Oo
Fahr., he could prevent spores from being devel-
oped and induce the organism to multiply itself
by subdivision, like its congener in fowl-chOlera.
he found that when this was accomplished,
precisely the same results followed exposure to
0he atmosphere as had followed in the other case,
ouU with much greater rapidity; that the organ
''ih coulo be tanned; that virus could be
piouuceu OF any desired degree of attenuation;
ana that when it was sufficiently attenuated, |
'una'eu upon sheep or CATTLE it gave rise only
" ~ "iiiii's constitutional results but at the same
'inie wrought such change in the system of the
aniiii DIS protected it against subsequent attacks
u ePieiiic lever just as effectualy as was known
TO DE the case when an animal recoverad from
The natural disease
In May last at Melup. before q run,bo- of