THE MICIIO-OKGANISMS WHICH OCCUR IN SEPTIC^MrA. 73 



violet has generally been recommended ; that hitherto procurable 

 in this country I have found very fugitive and uncertain in use, 

 the staining of the section, even after prolonged immersion, 

 frequently fading entirely upon a short treatment with alcohol, and 

 the "gentian violet," lately recommended by Weigert (loc. cit.), 

 I have found in comparative trials even more fugitive, its colour 

 beiug altogether lost by merely washing with water. Mr. 

 Martindale, however, of 10, New Cavendish Street, W., has lately 

 supplied me with some of the former salt procured from Germany, 

 which I have found much superior and less fugitive. The ])re- 

 parations in which the organisms here described are found are 

 all from young mice, previous to artificial infection healthy, killed 

 and treated by the methods already described. I have not found 

 the occurrence of these Bacilli constant in all such. subjects,^ and 

 in other organs than the lungs and in the blood, 1 have not 

 observed them. Tlie organism in question here, however, is so 

 excessively minute that the possibility of demonstrating it 

 depends entirely upon the methods employed in })reparing the 

 specimens, and their differentiation by successful staining from 

 the surrounding tissues. The action of the aniline dyes, too, is 

 always somewhat uncertain and capricious ; it has been before 

 remarked that the chemical reactions of Bacteria vary in different 

 organs of the same animal, and I have observed that in the case 

 at least of the liver the bile salts interfere with their staining ; 

 negative observations, therefore, especially in respect to this 

 organism, are worth very little. Prom my own observations in 

 other cases, however, it seems to me probable that if the lungs 

 are, as they seem to be, the principal nidus of the parasite, it 

 would not during the life of the animal infest its other organs, 

 but would invade them very rapidly upon its death. 



I have not succeeded satisfactorily in cultivating this Bacillus 

 artificially ; its ultra- minute size renders this a matter of especial 

 difficulty. By microscopical examinations of the fluids or media 

 employed, it is impossible to ascertain whether the organisms, if 

 unstained, are present or not.^ The cultivation is said to have 

 been accomplished by t)thers, though the details are not pub- 

 lished, and until this is done strictly, as in the case of anthrax, by 

 Dr. Koch, of pneumo-enteritis in swine, by Dr. Klein, and 

 some few other cases, its relation to the affection in which it 



1 Dr. Kocb, on the other hand, finds them invariably present. On this 

 point principally turns the whole question of the aetiology of this affection. 



^ In examining or searching for Bacteria, I have usually found that if 

 they are unstained the use of a sub-stage condenser, however the dia- 

 phragm may be manipulated, tends considerably to obscure them, more 

 especially with high powers, and in the case of even such a comparatively 

 conspicuous and large organism as B. anthracis. 



