subtilis, one square centimeter of culture surface of the latter organism being provided for each 15 cc. capacity of the jar. The jar was sealed and placed at 37° C. for three days, at the end of which time excellent surface colonies of Bang's bacillus were obtained. By the application of this method Nowak has succeeded in isolating the bacillus from the blood and intestinal contents of a number of fetuses, and from uterine discharge, when other methods failed. He has also observed that one could gradually decrease the amount of culture surface of B. subtilis employed in succeeding cultures and eventually get the bacillus of Bang to grow in the presence of atmospheric air, altho the cultures were relatively poor ones. Nowak also confirmed Bang by obtaining cultures in an atmosphere of nearly pure oxygen, as well as in ordinary air under a pressure of three atmospheres. His cultures were evidently vigorous for some of them were successfully transplanted after two years. Nowak used ordinary agar as a medium with considerable success, and found glucose agar to be almost as favorable to the growth of the bacillus. For the detection of the germ in pathological material, however, these media proved to be inferior to the serum-agar mixture in several cases. Cultures were obtained in broth and in milk without coagulation, contrary to the statement of Preisz. No gas was produced in sugar broth. Nowak inoculated a number of pregnant laboratory animals, and produced abortion with great regularity in guinea pigs and rabbits by subcutaneous, intravenous and intraperitoneal injection. He did not succeed in producing abortion by intravaginal application nor by feeding. No tests were made upon larger animals much to his regret, as in his opinion the experiments of Bang upon cows still left something to be desired in the way of experimental evidence.

McFadyean and Stockman (1909) have investigated the contagious abortion of cattle in Great Britain, and have found it to be identical with that studied by Bang in Denmark. They were able to produce the disease in cows by intravenous injection of natural virus and of active pure cultures, without a failure in eight experiments. By intravaginal application they caused the disease twice with cultures and three times with natural virus, but also failed to obtain any result in three trials with the natural virus. Subcutaneous inoculation was successful three times in five trials. By feeding they produced the disease three times in four trials. These authors consider ingestion to be an important mode of contracting contagious abortion in nature.

Zwick (1910) has made a preliminary report of the bacteriological investigation of contagious abortion at the German Imperial Health Office. By a comparative study of cultures, the unity of the disease in Denmark, Germany, England, and Holland has been established. Certain individual differences were detected in the various culture strains examined, and it was found that the bacillus could be readily cultivated upon various ordinary laboratory media, and that it could also adapt itself to an aerobic existence, thus confirming the work of Nowak. In one instance the bacillus grew aerobically immediately upon isolation from the animal body. Abortion was induced in sheep, goats, and rabbits by intravenous injection, intravaginal application, and also by feeding. Work upon the use of abortin (analogous to tuberculin) for diagnosis, and upon the agglutination and complement fixation tests, was in progress at the time the report was made.

BACTERIOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS AND EXPERIMENTS AT THIS STATION

In the United States contagious abortion is widespread, and has been recognized for a number of years by practical husbandmen as an important economic factor in animal industry. Epidemiological studies have recently been reported from Arizona and Connecticut. At the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station the beef cattle herd has suffered