INVEETEBKATA, CRYPTOGAMIA, MICROSCOPYj ETC. 1015 



The explanation of how the bacteria reach the surface is to be 

 found in the operations of the earth-worms which bring to the surface 

 much of the subjacent earth ; in their casts, as in the earthy contents 

 of their digestive canals, the germs are found. The contents of these 

 cylinders of soil when they are broken up by rain and then scattered 

 in the form of dust become distributed over the low plants of the 

 pasturages, with the same fatal effects to the animals browsing there as 

 were shown above in the experiments with infected fodder. The 

 dangerous state of the soil in this case suggests the use of cremation 

 to destroy the germs. 



The soils most likely to be proof against the transmission of 

 the disease would appear to be poor, sandy, or calcareous, not damp 

 ones, which would be thus unfitted for worms. These conditions 

 are found in the Snvarts of Champagne, where a poor, shallow soil 

 rests directly on chalk, and in parts of Aveyron, where the soil is 

 schistous and granitic, and in these places anthrax is unknown. 



Anthrax— Its Spread and Prevention.* — M. Pasteur's views as 

 to the cause of the spread of this disease in certain countries, viz. by 

 the liberation of the bacteria from the decomposed bodies of animals, 

 and their subsequent dispersion by the agency of earth-worms, culti- 

 vation of the soil, &c., are supported by the circumstances connected 

 with an outbreak of the disease in a village in the department of the 

 Jura. 



Hero three cows which had died of the disease were buried at 

 a depth of 2 metres. At different times within the ensuing two 

 years the rich earth and the worm-casts above the graves were 

 examined, and in all cases were found to contain germs of the Bacillus 

 anthracis, while earth taken from a few metres' distance contained 

 none. 



To further show the transmissibility of the germs, a pen was 

 made over one of the graves, and four sheep were placed in it ; 

 and in a second one, a few metres above the first, were placed four 

 more sheep. After a week one of the sheep in the former pen 

 died, and the cause was found to be the Bacillus. The sheep in 

 the second pen remained quite well. The origin of the disease was 

 evidently therefore in the cartli infected by the dead cow. 



Another important question relating to this disease is the possi- 

 bility or impossibility of 2)rcvcnting its recurrence. M. Bouley gives 

 an account | of exitoriments made by M. Toussaint on twenty sheep 

 by inoculating tliem with a liquid intended to preserve them from 

 antlirax. Of the twenty animals, four died of the disease. To show 

 the immunity conferred by inoculation, two of the surviving sixteen 

 sheep were again inoculated with a very active anthrax solution, 

 without experiencing any ill effects, while a rabbit treated with tho 

 same fluid died. 



To make this discovery practically useful it will bo necessary to 

 obtain virus of such a strength that it will act with sufficient vigour 

 without destroying tho animals subjected to it. M. Chauvcau states 



♦ ' Comptca Ueii(lu«,' xci. ( l.SSO) p. I'lCi. \ ll.i,!., p. K)7. 



