384 CLASSICS OF MODERN SCIENCE 

 bacillus anthracis, and of each only a small number; of the anthrax 

 bacilli there would be even fewer than of the other, because in mice 

 they are deposited chiefly in the spleen, lungs, etc. ; while in the blood 

 of the heart they are, even in the most favorable cases, only sparsely 

 distributed. On the other hand, the anthrax bacilli have this advan- 

 tage, that, provided they be inoculated in considerable numbers, they 

 kill even within twenty hours, while the septicsemic bacilli only destroy 

 life after fifty hours. In the blood of the second animal, therefore, 

 both species of bacilli would be present in larger numbers than in the 

 first, although not yet so numerous as if either organism had been in- 

 oculated singly. Hence a larger quantity of blood is necessary to en- 

 sure transmission to a third animal. Perhaps this might be the case 

 even in the fourth generation, till finally one or other variety of bacil- 

 lus would alone be present in the blood injected. Probably this would 

 be the septicsemic bacillus. 



In this way the experiments of Coze, Feltz, and Davaine may admit 

 of simple explanation and be brought into harmony with my results. 



