164 PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BACTERIA. 
an infected animal, and sowing it upon the food 
given to an animal in good health, the latter has 
contracted the disease. 
Malignant Pustule without Bacteria. — Besides 
the numerous facts concerning charbon, in which 
the presence of a bacterium has been verified, it 
is proper to cite those cases in which none has 
been discovered. Some authorities, such as Tous- 
saint, Mannoury, and Salmon, who have given 
these instances, consider this absence of bacteria 
a favorable prognostic sign. The following well- 
marked example has recently been observed : — 
Louis Donin,.a tanner, aged forty, was admitted 
to the Hotel-Dieu of Lyons, June 15th, 1876, 
service of Fochier. On the morning of June 13, 
he had noticed three large flies, eagerly attacking 
the skins upon which he was working. One of 
them bit him in the face. The same day his cheek 
swelled; during the night a large vesicle formed, 
surrounded by an areola of other smaller vesicles; 
the skin having become pruriginous, Donin rubbed 
the central vesicle. Upon his arrival bis general 
condition was satisfactory. Upon his left cheek 
was seen an areola of little vesicles surrounding 
a slough having a diameter of less than a centi- 
meter. The periphery was oedematous and hard, 
trembling and extended downwards as far as the 
xiphoid appendix. The eyelids and the cedema- 
tous lips were opened with difficulty. In order to 
verify the diagnosis, Toussaint inoculated a rabbit 
with the débris of a pustule; a second, with blood; 
