NO•4 HISTORY OF THE DISEASE. Canine distemper is an acute infectious disease peculiar to dogs. It has been variously termed canine distemper, canine plague, wheel plague, canine glanders, catarrhal fever, etc. It is called by the Germans" Hundestaupe," "Staupe der Hunde," or "Hundekrankheit"; by the French, "maladie des chiens" or "maladie du jeune age"; and by the Italians "cimurro" or "moccio canino." Distemper is caused by a specific poison, the etiological factor, probably a microorganism , which finds its way into the system through the respiratory tract. Young animals are most susceptible to the disease, which is found running its course, according to the textbooks, as a catarrhal fever, affecting at one time or another all the mucous membranes of the body, and often accompanied with certain nervous symptoms and skin eruptions. As with measles and whooping cough of the human race, very few of the young escape, and, usually, one attack confers immunity. It exists in all countries and may be found at any season of the year, although the spring and summer months are the most favorable ..
IN July 1910 the writer published an article (1910 ') entitled " A Preliminary Report of the Bacterial Findings in Canine Distemper,'' in which was described the organism responsible for the disease. Within a few months a complete report (1911 2, was given in a paper entitled (' Etiology of Canine Distemper." Almost simultaneously with the second report an article (1 9 11 3, appeared, by M'Gowan of Edinburgh, in which was described the same organism. This year an article (1913 4 , appeared, by Torrey and Rahe of New York, corroborating the findings of the two previous workers.
In a previous article (Ferry and Noble, 1918) we have described the cultural, agglutination and absorption reactions between Bact. pertussis and B. bronchisepticus and have shown that, while the two organisms are distinct, they are apparently somewhat closely related. The most striking characteristics of the organisms, according to the serological reactions, were shown to be the ability of B. bronchisepticus to produce an immune serum that would agglutinate both the B. bronchisepticus and Bact. pertussis anitigens and the ability of Bact. pertussis to produce an immune serum that would agglutinate only the homologous antigen. The absorption reaction showed that the B. bronchisepticus antigen would absorb from the antibronchisepticus serum (a serum that contained agglutinins for both organisms) only the B. bronchisepticus agglutinin (the major agglutinin) leaving intact the agglutinin for Bact. pertussis (the minor agglutinin). This minor agglutinin could only be absorbed by the Bact. pertussis antigen. This type of an agglutinin was termed by the authors a "transitive" agglutinin.The present investigation was undertaken to confirm the work of the previous paper through complement fixation tests and to determine, if possible, the value of this test in differentiating between the two organisms.Strains used. At first a large number of strains of each organism were used, -the same strains as those worked with in the pre-
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