" braxy " sheep disease in australia. 581 



The Situation of the Pathogenic Bacilli in the Naturally 

 AND Experimentally Affected Anhl^l. 



Judging by examination of fluids, blood and organs in 

 the Tasmanian case killed for examination, and in the Vic- 

 torian cases on which post-mortem examination was made 

 soon after death, which fluids, etc., were free of patho- 

 genic bacteria, although not sterile so far as other accidental 

 organisms were concerned, as proved by incubation of such material 

 in previously sterile pipettes, the bacilli do not travel far, or at 

 least in numbers, from the primary situation. For experimental 

 animals almost the same may be said, with the exception that 

 when stomach or intestinal congestion is present the bacilli may 

 always be found in such affected areas. Although present in large 

 numbers near the original site of inoculation, especially in the 

 haemorrhagic and degenerated muscle, it is to be noted that in the 

 clear oedema they are very scarce, often absent, as proved by 

 pipettes of such oedema, particularly when secured from the sub- 

 cutaneous tissue of the hock or lower part of the limb, remaining 

 sterile at blood heat and the contents being innocuous for other 

 sheep. The peritoneal fluid is nearly always contaminated by 

 other bacilli, such as large putrefactive bacilli, long filamentous 

 organisms, tetanus-like bacilli (all of which are ansrobic and of 

 intestinal origin), cocci, and other aerobic bacteria. The pleural 

 and pericardial effusions are generally sterile at the moment of death. 

 The heart blood is generally apparently sterile to microscopical 

 examination, but if a quantity be incubated in sterilised pipettes the 

 pathogenic bacteria can as a rule soon be demonstrated, though not 

 always in a state of purity. The liver especially is frequently 

 contaminated by accidental putrefactive bacteria, as may be 

 seen in sections of the necrosed patches, both from natural and 

 experimental cases, where, while the pathogenic bacteria may 

 be observed lying throughout the parenchyma, the accidental 

 putrefactive bacteria are chiefly confined to the blood stream. 



Sections of the ab omasum, whether in natural or experimental 

 cases, show in the congested areas intense dilatation of the capil- 

 laries with frequent minute blood extravasations. Although when 

 the tissue has been fixed soon after death, the blood-vessels are 

 seen to be free of bacilli, the interstitial tissue between the gastric 

 glands is found to contain masses of the characteristic pathogenic 

 bacteria, a few of which may also be found in the oedematous 

 sub- mucosa. 



The evidence, therefore, is that the bacilli during the progress 

 of the disease do not travel far from the original point of entrance, 

 and that any which do enter the blood-stream are more liable to 

 be arrested in the capillaries of the stomach and intestinal (small) 

 wall — that, in other words, the general nature of the disease is a 

 distinct and severe toxaemia, the stomach and intestinal lesions 

 being either due to direct inoculation in natural cases (which seems 

 doubtful) or to haemrtogenous infection in both natural and 



