•572 ON MICRO-ORGANISMS IN TISSUES OP DISEASED HORSES, 



Finally, after having stained the sections after Gram (see 

 above), I have tried successfully a contrast stain by means 

 of dilute solutions of vesuvin or bismarck-brown, in which 

 •the sections were kept about one minute. Afterwards I found 

 the bacilli under consideration again of an intense blue, the 

 tissue yellowish brown. Among the bacilli there were, here and 

 there, specimens in which that portion showing but a faint colour 

 reaction, and losing this little of colour by Gram's method, presents 

 now a distinct though faint brownish or yellowish tint, in contra- 

 distinction to the other portion with its intense blue colour. 



The second form of bacteria are also bacilli of the same leusth. 

 but as a rule, of only about one-half to two-thirds of the width of the 

 former. As regards their outlines and their relation to the tissue, 

 they behave in much the same way as those, with which they are 

 either mixed or not. But their protoplasmic contents do not 

 exhibit that peculiar differentiation into two portions as seen there ; 

 here and there, it is true, specimens occurred which presented a 

 granular or fragmentary protoplasmic interior. 



Without attempting to utter a definite opinion as to whether 

 this bacterial form No. II. is a kind by itself, or merely represents 

 a certain stage in the development of the other. No, I., I surmise 

 that the latter is the case, seeing that the staining reaction of 

 Bacilkis II. resembles that of part of Bacillus I., and finding also, 

 ■on close examination, apparently transition-forms between the two. 

 In sections which were stained after Gram's process, and after- 

 wards by brown colours (see above), I noticed that a great many 

 bacilli, which otherwise resembled No. I., differed from them by 

 having the chromatophilovis portion less distinct, and now taken 

 possession of by a brownish colour. 



The question whether these bacteria occurring in the mesenteric 

 elands, must be regarded as the cause or one of the causes of the 

 horse-disease at issue, or whether they had made their appearance in 

 those organs after the appearance of the disease, but during the life 



