28O BACTERIA. 



some emphysema ; the abdominal muscles are pale, moist, 

 and are evidently in a condition of cloudy swelling, or in 

 some cases there may be in the muscles, near the point of 

 inoculation, hyaline degeneration. The spleen is enlarged, 

 soft, and pulpy, and appears to contain a very large quantity 

 of blood ; it is dark in colour. The liver also is changed ; it 

 has a half-boiled look, and contains a considerable quantity 

 of blood. The lungs are bright red and the cavities of the 

 heart are distended. As already stated, the blood and lymph 

 from the tissues contain the bacilli in very considerable 

 numbers. If sections of various organs and tissues are 

 afterwards made, it will be found that the bacilli are most 

 numerous near the capillary vessels or in those small 

 venules that arise from the capillaries. They are found 

 in all parts of the spleen and in the small venules of the 

 liver. They may also be found in the small capillaries of 

 the glomeruli of the kidney. 



Another method of infection, especially met with in wool- 

 sorters' disease, is by the air passages, a condition that was 

 most carefully described by Greenfield in this country, and 

 has since been made the subject of careful observations by 

 Buchner in Germany. It appears that the spores are inhaled 

 along with dust from hair, wool, &c. ; they develop in the 

 air passages of the lung, make their way through the alveolar 

 membrane or through the walls of the bronchi, and so into 

 the lymph channels and blood vessels of the lung. In 

 some cases, however, they appear to " operate ' from 

 the air channels themselves, and, multiplying in these 

 positions, give rise to a kind of pneumonia. The air vessels 

 become rilled with sero-fibrinous exudation, in which the 

 bacilli may develop most rapidly, the walls of the alveoli 

 become cedematous ; the bacilli make their way from these 

 points into the circulation, and general anthrax is set up. 

 Pleurisy, with effusion into the thoracic cavity, as already 

 mentioned, may also develop in these cases, and the walls 

 of the bronchi appear to be invaded by the bacillus. It has 

 been found that if the bacillus is taken into the alimentary 

 canal the acid contained in the stomach usually destroys it. 

 If, however, resistant spores make their way into the alimen- 

 tary canal, they may pass untouched through the stomach 

 and so into the alkaline contents of the intestine. At the 

 body temperature they are then under very suitable conditions 



