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October 10th, 1904.-The animal has been reduced to skin and bone. The gait irregular, muscular movements, etc., are still present, but not more pronounced. If anything the pig is somewhat brighter to-day. Its temperature has fallen and a certain amount of food (boiled rice) has been consumed. There is no diarrhoea.
October 13th, 1904.-The animal died to-day.
Post-mortem Examination.-There was great emaciation. All the organs and tissues were found to be markedly anæmic. Slight oedema of the subcutaneous tissues was present. The blood was watery and did not coagulate for some time after it had been withdrawn from the body. Both lungs distinctly crepitant throughout. There was no excess of fluid in either pleural cavity. The cardiac muscle was pale, yellowish, and anæmic, The right ventricle was dilated, the left ventricle dilated and slightly hypertrophied. There was a slight amount of mucoid-like tissue lying 'beneath the epicardium, especially along the course of the main coronary vessels and at the auriculo-ventricular junction. The valves were normal. The ventricles coutained several small ante-mortem blood clots. The pericardium was normal and contained about 50 e.c, of clear yellowish serous fluid.
The spleen was enlarged, soft and friable.
The liver was soft and yellowish. On section the bile channels were dilated and contained a thin yellowish fluid. Slight cirrhosis was also present.
The stomach was normal, there was no congestion or reddening of the mucosa.
The intestines were normal.
The mesentery was thickened owing to the presence of oedema and gelatinous infiltration. The mesenteric glands were slightly enlarged and showed cortical congestion.
The kidneys were normal.
The brain and spinal cord were congested.
Smear preparations were made from the heart, blood, spleen, liver and kidney, and cerebro-spinal fluid, and shewed the presence in the tissues of a small worm which resembled the embryos of Filaria. Several of these were found in each slide. So far we have been unable to identify them, and have found them in this pig alone. Nothing further, worthy of note, was found in these sinear preparations.
Cultures were also made from the heart blood and the spleen but gave a negative result as regards specific organisms.
The sciatic nerves were excised and examined for degenerative changes but the result was negative.
Cause of Death.-Vide Conclusion of Experiment No. IV.
Experiment No. II.
Animal. One pig.
Preliminary conditions as in Experiment No. I.
The pig was fed with an emulsion of the spleen, heart blood and cerebro- spinal fluid of a recently dead acute case of Beri-beri.
The pig ate the mixture with great relish.
On the following day it appeared to be normal. There was no temperature.
On the 3rd day of the experiment the animal died suddenly.