10 DR. E. KLEIN. 



Koch (' Zur Aetiologie des ^lilzbrandes, in Mittheil. de 

 Kais. Gesundheits-Amtes.,' Bud. i, Berlin, 1881) made some 

 interesting contributions to the etiology of anthrax. The most 

 important points in his publication are the criticisms of 

 Buchner's and Pasteur^s work on the subject. Although a 

 great deal of what Koch says when speaking in a perfectly 

 objective manner of Buchner's observations is justified, I do 

 not think that there exists the same justification for all he says 

 of Pasteur's work. That in the present extended knowledge 

 of anthrax, both in its etiology and pathology, but especially 

 the former, we owe more to Koch's brilliant researches than to 

 the researches of all other observers taken together, including 

 Pollender, Brauel, and Davaine, the discoverers of the Ba- 

 cillus anthracis, will, I think, be readily conceded by all 

 who have had the opportunity of repeating some of Koch's 

 experiments and observations, and have read his several com- 

 munications on this subject, and it is not want of respect to 

 the other workers in this field to concede this much. It will 

 likewise be conceded, I think, by all who read Pasteur's various 

 contributions on the subject of the etiology of anthrax, tbat 

 Pasteur would have profited by a more careful study of Koch's 

 observations and writings, particularly that the error of Pas- 

 teur's earth-worm theory ^ might have been avoided if he had 

 felt the significance of Koch's previous observations on the 

 incapability of the Bacillus anthracis to form spores within 

 the body of an animal owing to the want of sufficient amount 

 of oxygen, and especially of Koch's valuable observations on 

 the inability of the Bacillus anthracis to form spores in the 

 depth of the soil. And, again, objection may perhaps be taken 



' According to this theory spores having been formed in the bacilli within 

 the organs of a buried animal that has died of anthrax, such spores are taken 

 up by earth-worms, carried up to the surface, and then deposited with their 

 castings. From the surface of the soil they find easy access into the mouth or 

 nostrils of animals grazing on that soil. 



I shall sliow in a future report that the bacillus threads, as such, do not 

 survive even the initial stages of decomposition of the buried body. And it 

 cannot be supposed that earth-worms can feed on buried bodies in the few 

 days that may elapse before decomposition has set in. 



