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nected with spore formation, Pasteur maintains that anthrax 

 has been spread amongst cattle and sheep by the bringing 

 up of spores from buried carcases by earthworms, which is 

 opposed to the opinions of Koch and Klein that no spores are 

 ever formed in the bodies of animals. Again, Klein has found 

 that cultures of Bacillus anthracis which are fatal to rabbits 

 and guinea-pigs, whether forming spores or not, are only 

 fatal to mice when they are spore-forming cultures. In 

 considering all these various results we must bear in mind 

 that there are several modes in which the life of the higher 

 organism may be destroyed. The phenomenon may be simply 

 a strusfffle for existence between the microbes and the vital 

 cells of the animal body, in which the strongest survives, 

 death resulting from the destruction of the function of the 

 parts invaded, the loss of nutriment, or their absolute change 

 into another form of life, morbid growths or microbe life 

 resulting from a dissolution of the tie which holds the cells 

 too'ether as a community; or the products of the fermentive 

 action of the microbes may be poisonous, or may be poison- 

 ous in the particular channels in which they are produced; 

 or finally, as Dr. Cameron has suggested, the fatal result may 

 be due merely to the mechanical obstruction offered by mil- 

 lions of microbes blocking up the capillary circulation. 

 Vastly extended threads of mycelium growth would, of 

 course, have such a mechanical effect. Now, from the vitality 

 of spores, the fact that they resist destruction up to 110° C. 

 of heat, and that they seem to retain their specific life for 

 indefinite period,?, it is possible that we may be too much 

 disposed to malign them. Of the two modes of reproduc- 

 tion, the multiplication by scissiparity and the multipli- 

 cation by spores, may not the former be, at least in some 

 cases, the true disease form ? Spores, if cultivated in suitable 

 infusions, will apparently reproduce the Bacillus anthracis 

 of the parent cultures, and inoculations with such cultures 

 will kill with typical anthrax. But have we sure evidence 



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