6Q DR. E. KLEIN. 



procesSj boiling a minute or two does not destroy the life of 

 the spores. I have thus treated, as mentioned on a former 

 page, spores contained in a flask of gelatine pork, and have 

 obtained afterwards from them a copious crop of bacilli proving 

 fatal to guinea-pigs and rabbits. I have similarly exposed in 

 a capillary pipette fluid full of spores to the influence of ether 

 spray, and having thus kept the fluid well frozen for several 

 minutes, have injected it into the guinea-pig and rabbit with 

 fatal result. I then subjected spores in the same manner to 

 repeated freezing, each time for several minutes, the freezing 

 being also carried out by the ether spray ; but these spores 

 nevertheless retained their full virulence. Before forty-eight 

 hours were over the inoculated animals were dead of anthrax. 

 I then placed a capillary tube filled with spores in a mixture 

 of ice and salt, and kept it here for one hour exposed to a 

 temperature of 13° to 15° C. below freezing point ; after thaw- 

 ing the material was injected into the subcutaneous tissue of 

 a guinea-pig. This animal died of typical anthrax during 

 the third day. There was, however, no oedema about the seat 

 of inoculation. 



Such a low temperature, viz. 12° to 15° C. below freezing 

 point (or 21° — 27° Fahr. below freezing point), does not occur 

 in the soil of middle Europe or of these kingdoms, even in 

 the depth of the coldest winter, and therefore spores of 

 Bacillus anthracis formed in the soil from the Bacillus 

 anthracis that happens to be growing there in a suitable 

 nourishing material (vegetable infusion, &c.), are practically 

 indestructible. 



As an addition to our knowledge of the mode of propagation 

 of anthrax in animals the following facts may not be value- 

 less. In several instances I found that of a mouse that had 

 died of anthrax a great portion had been eaten by its fellow- 

 companion not inoculated with anthrax ; its neck, heart, lungs, 

 and liver had all been swallowed up, but, nevertheless, the 

 mouse that had thus feasted on anthrax remained perfectly 

 well. Koch ('Die Aetiologie d. Milzbrand,' p. 13) is very 

 strong on the communicability of anthrax through simple in- 



