Microbic Diseases Individually Considered. 183 



12° and ceases at 40°, and is the more active in pro- 

 portion as the nutritive fluid becomes more exhausted. 



The bacilhis of charbon is non-motile and aerobic ; 

 the presence of oxygen is, indeed, absolutely neces- 

 sary for sporulation. 



Action of physical and chemical agents. — A tempera- 

 ture of 45° arrests the vegetation of the charbon 

 bacilli ; at 42-5° they multiply only by fission, no 

 longer giving birth to spores, and they also become 

 attenuated. 



The rods are killed by several minutes exposure to 

 a temperature of 50° ; the spores, however, are not 

 influenced by this temperature ; in the moist con- 

 dition they resist 80° and when dry support with im- 

 punity a temperature of 100°. 



The bacteridia, in the condition of mycelium, that 

 is, the rods, are destroyed by putrefaction ; hence 

 they quickly disappear from carcasses abandoned to 

 the air. But this is not the case for those in which 

 the viscera have been immediately removed, and more 

 especially for bodies of charbonous animals which 

 have been bled and dressed. Putrefaction, in this par- 

 ticular case, is much more tardy, and it is possible 

 to find the charbon bacillus in the blood several days 

 after death. This is a fact of very great practical 

 importance and one which meat inspectors ought 

 carefully to notice. 



It would seem that, the bacilli of charbon being 

 destroyed by the putrefaction of the cadavers, the 

 latter would not constitute a source of danger for 

 later contaminations. But after the death of the dis- 

 eased animals all the bacilli are not destroyed; those 

 which come into contact with the external air form 



