1907.] on Certain Seasonal Diseases of the Sheep. 547 



a few days, and with acute toxic symptoms, the clear Uquid in those 

 which Uved longer and in which the disease went through all its 

 three stages. 



When the animal was slaughtered during the height of the malady 

 the peritoneal liquid was always of the clear variety ; the turbid variety 

 was found only where the animal died a natural death. 



Description of the Organism. — The organism {Bacillus chorece 

 paralytica, Hamilton) possesses the following characteristics : It is 

 a large coarse-looking rod, sometimes elongating into a thread, or, it 

 may be. a chain of rods. The actual measurements, as taken directly 

 from the organism in the peritoneal liquid, I have found to be : In 

 one case, when not sporing, 5*6 X 1 * 4/>i, 7*0 x 1 * 4/x ; and, when 

 sporing, 4*2 X 1'4/x. In another case, when not sporing, 2'8/x, 

 4-2, 5-6, 7-0, y-'S, and 11-2/xX I'OS to 1-4/1. The spores in 

 the latter case measured 1 • 05 to 1 • 4yw. in length. Its dimensions, 

 therefore, like all the members of the group, vary considerably, chiefly 

 accounted for by the fact that involution forms are almost always 

 present. The ends are rounded, and it is possessed of feeble motility. 

 It has a considerable tendency to spore ; the spore is located at its 

 centre or at one end ; and occasionally, especially after incubation in 

 its native liquid, it assumes a drumstick configuration, indistinguish- 

 able from that of the Bacillus Tetani. Most of the usual aniline 

 dyes stain it readily, and the colour is not discharged by Gram's 

 process. These staining reactions hold good of the organism both 

 when taken directly from the carcase and when in culture. 



It is a strict anaerobe, and grows on various media, but most 

 characteristically on alkaline glucose beef -tea and glucose-gelatin, 

 each covered with olive oil. The glucose beef-tea becomes turbid 

 after four to five hours' incubation at 38° C, and continues so for 

 days while incubation is proceeding. If removed from the incubator 

 after, say, four days' growth, the culture begins to settle down slowly 

 at the bottom of the tube in a fine precipitate of greyish colour. It 

 does not tend to agglomerate in a granular form, as in the case of 

 Braxy, nor to become attached to the sides of the tube. During the 

 process of germination much gas is evolved which possesses a dis- 

 tinctly putrefactive odour. 



Examined microscopically, the culture is found to be composed of 

 thick stout rods, somewhat longer possibly than in the original peri 

 toneal liquid, slightly motile when first removed from the incubator, 

 losing this characteristic later on. Their actual measurements were 

 found to be: 4*2 X l-4/>t, 5'6 X 1/x, 7*0 X 1-4/x, and 14*0 X 1-4/t. 



The ends are rounded, but usually the growth is free from spores. 

 Even when the medium has been strongly alkaline to begin with, 

 the Braxy organism will render it acid after a few hours' growth. 

 The Louping-ill bacillus acts in a like fashion, but slower, and this 

 probaljly accounts for germination being more protracted in the latter 

 than in the former case. 



2 N 2 



