MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 175 



occasionally occurring, attenuated anthrax bacillus. "Fleischfuttermehl" is the residue 

 remaining after the extraction of meat, which residue is then dried and ground up and is 

 used in certain German localities, among other places, for feeding stock. The heating pro- 

 cess involved could result in the attenuation of true anthrax bacilli. They collected 

 twelve samples from various parts of west Germany and found anthrax-like bacilli in seven. 

 The seven cultures were of three varieties differing chiefly in characteri.'^tic of growth in 

 Isouillon and in degree of motility. Variety I, which most closely resenibled the true an- 

 thrax liacillus, was carefully worked out and proved to be nearly identical with that de- 

 scribed by Burri. By growth under anaerobic conditions they caused this germ to become 

 pathogenic toward mice. Likewise it caused a local reaction in guinea pigs, and seemed to 

 cause the lessening of virulence of true anthrax bacilli l)y passage through guinea pigs so 

 treated. Thev found a spiking in gelatine, also a slight acid production m milk. They say 

 that the chief difference between B. pseudanthracis and B. anthracis lies in the motility of 

 the former and the character of the growth in beef tea. , The greater the virulence of B. 

 pseudanthracis the less persistent was the cloudiness in bouillon. They consider this germ 

 as probablv a modified variety of B. anthracis. 



Willach"" (1896) investigatecfa bacillus isolatedfrom theblood and the spleen of acowdying- 

 shortly after delivery. Slaterial from the same source was sent to the hygienic laboratory 

 of a university, the name of which was not given and the germ was there pronounced to be 



B. anthracis," though atypical on account of the character of the gelatine growth. Mice 

 died thirty to forty hours after inoculation. Willach, however, found the germ to be non- 

 pathogenic toward guinea pigs. On a repeated test the university observer found that his 

 germ had lost all virulence and was motile and admitted that the material sent him did not 

 contain the anthrax bacillus. 



]kIcFarland ^^ in 1898 found a single medusa-head colony on a plate poured from pus from 

 an unusual sort of abscess. He suspected a true anthrax colony as a contamination, as his 

 students had been working just previously with the anthrax bacillus. The germ proved to 

 be devoid of pathogenic effects toward guinea pigs, Avhite mice and ral)bits. This germ was 

 non-motile, its gelatine growth resembled that of B. anthracis but otherwise it resembled 

 more closely the bacillus isolated here. He called this germ B. anthracis similis. 



Gottsteiri" (1902) investigated an anthrax case occurring in a tannery and demonstrated 

 the presence of B. anthracis. From wool brought from this tannery he isolated a certain 

 motile bacillus which in practically all its cultural properties resembled B. anthracis. This 

 was pathogenic for mice. On impregnating wool containing this germ with anthrax spores 

 and making a suspension thereof in bouillon and inoculating a mouse, the animal died of true 

 anthrax. If, however, a sinilar suspension was incubated for twenty-four hours at 37° 



C. and a mouse was then inoculated with this incubated suspension, the animal died of in- 

 fection with the anthrax-like bacillus. On plates the germ could also out grow the genuine 

 B. anthracis. 



Schulzi" (1903) found anthrax-like bacilli in the milk of a sick goat. 



Bongert ' ' (1903) met with anthrax-like bacilli in material from various sources. Thev 

 were all motile, and unlike B. anthracis clouded beef tea with suljsequent clearing and with 

 formation of a scum which did not readily break up on shaking. They were non-patho- 

 genic. When occasionally a mouse did die, the rods met with in the spleen were longer, 

 thicker, and had ends more rounded than the anthrax bacillus. 



Baumann ' ^ (1905) examined water for the presence of the anthrax bacillus. He found 

 medusa-head colonies, which consisted of long threads of apparently non-motile rods. The 

 sulj-cultures showed only shorter threads and single rods, with somewhat rounded ends. 

 These were motile. The germ reseml)led very closely the one encountered here. It was 

 non-pathogenic toward mice and guinea pigs. In one instance a mouse died but without an 

 increase in virulence of the germ isolated from it. Baumann compared this germ with a 

 hay bacillus, a "wurzel" bacillus, another anthrax-like bacillus and with a true anthrax 

 bacillus and found that it most closely resembled the "wurzel" and the other anthrax-like 

 bacillus. 



Kaesewurm ^^ found anthrax-like Ijacilli in the l>lood, milk and spleen of animals, also in 

 hay, wool and blotting paper. These killed mice in large doses, but the virulence of the 

 germs was not increased. 



The B. apicum of Canestrini ' \ pathogenic for laees but not for mice or guinea pigs, 

 while referred to frequently as anthrax-like has certain properties, such as the production 

 of pigment on potato, which throw it out of the class of the germs above considered. 



So far as can be determined from the descriptions all of the fore- 

 going differ in varying degree among themselves. The germ with 

 whicli I have been working also evidently possesses distinctive features. 

 I have not deemed it advisable to go here into the detailed points of 



