MICROPHYTES FOUND IN THE BLOOD. 371 



lead me to believe that the spore does not always at once grow 

 into a rod, but that it divides into four sporules by a process of 

 division, in which the envelope as well as the spore takes part. 

 This division I have seen beginning before the spore escaped 

 from the filament [fig. 8 (b)], and that it is not a degeneration 

 is certain, for I have watched the sporules thus formed lengthen 

 into rods [fig. 8, (c)]. Dr. Koch states that the rods are deve- 

 loped from the gelatinous-looking capsule, and not from the 

 bright, shining spore. From what I have seen I think there 

 can be no doubt whatever that the capsule takes no active part 

 during the formation of the rod. The sporule thus slightly 

 elongates (fig. 9), and then from one of its poles an opaque 



Fig. 9. — Bacillus anthracis : A sporule developing into a rod (after Ewart). 

 X ? diain. 



process appears, which, as it slowly lengthens, pushes the cap- 

 sule before it, as it would an elastic membrane. The capsule, as 

 this stretching goes on, becomes at last so thin and transparent 

 that it can no longer be distinguished from its contents." 



It is, I think, extremely probable that MM. Cohn and Koch 

 may suggest as an explanation of the discrepancy between their 

 description and figures and those given by Dr. Ewart, that the 

 latter has described and figured the spore (or conidium) of a 

 totally different plant, accidentally present ; and MM. Nageli 

 and de Bary would (in the absence of exact data as to size), in 

 all probabdity pronounce the germination depicted in the last 

 figure reproduced as being that of a conidium of one or other of 

 our ubiquitous moulds. 



Like Koch, Dr. Ewart found that mice could be fed with 

 splenic-disease material mixed with their food without any evil 

 effects ensuing, and that "the spores may be found in the ali- 

 mentary canal of such mice, sometimes as if in process of develop- 

 ment into rods and filaments." With reference to the last 

 remark, a person constantly engaged in microscopic work may 

 question whether it is possible to distinguish these glittering free 

 ' spores^ from the myriads of other glistening molecules found 

 in the intestinal canal of all animals. 



Contrary to the results hitherto obtained and published by 

 others in support of the view that Bacillus anthracis is itself the 



