EELATION OF PATHOGENIC TO SEPTIC BACTERIA. 67 



gestion from the alimentary canal in animals and man. The 

 above facts do not support this theory as regards mice, for no 

 mouse would escape inoculation with an infinitesimal dose of 

 blood of anthrax. They are, however, well in harmony with 

 those of Pasteur and Toussaint, who maintain that in the case 

 of sheep the production of anthrax in these animals by in- 

 gestion is in reality due to an inoculation with anthrax into 

 the mucous membrane of the mouth, owing to small wounds 

 and abrasions produced there by the material mixed with the 

 food. 



The important question as to the preservation of the activity 

 of the Bacillus anthracis within the body of the dead 

 animal, although commenced, is not advanced enough to be 

 here reported, and therefore must be reserved for a further 

 report. Also the observations on the changes the Bacillus 

 anthracis undergoes when cultivated in acid and alkaline 

 fluids. Some of these observations have been already touched 

 upon, but others of equal importance cannot find room here 

 to be discussed. But this much I will state already now, that 

 I have ascertained that, contrary to what Koch and Buchner 

 have found. Bacillus anthracis is capable of growing in 

 acid fluids, and that it most undoubtedly behaves in a different 

 manner, both as regards size, mode, and time of degeneration 

 and formation of spores, in alkaline and acid cultures, from 

 what it does in neutral nourishing fluids. 



In conclusion, and as concerns the more general question 

 which has been held in view throughout the present report, it 

 is to be observed that the theory of the transformation of a 

 pathogenic organism into a non-pathogenic septic organism, 

 as expressed by v. Nageli and regarded by Dr. Buchner as 

 being capable of direct proof, is not supported by my own in- 

 vestigations into the characters of the Bacillus anthracis, 

 which has appeared to retain its full power to produce specific 

 disease as long as it has retained any power at all. And in 

 regard of that particular bacillus, it is further to be noted 



