3Iicrohic Diseases Individually Considered. 337 



researches, bearing upon four subjects only, that 

 a micrococcus in pure culture is always present 

 in the pustules of the cutaneous form. M. Mathis 

 has recorded in a special work the results of his in- 

 vestigations, lie succeeded in demonstrating in the 

 contents of pustules, in the discharge from the nos- 

 trils, in the blood and in the tissues, the presence of 

 spherical micrococci, isolated or grouped in pairs, 

 in chains, or in masses ; these measure 0-1// to 0-3// in 

 diameter. He cultivated these organisms in bouil- 

 lon ; this medium becomes turbid, then, after fifteen 

 to twenty days, clears again by the deposition of the 

 suspended germs at the bottom of the vessel. 



Subcutaneous inoculation of these cultures in sus- 

 ceptible dogs is followed by an cedematous tumefac- 

 tion, with pustules on the skin in the region of the 

 inoculation ; generally there is an elevation of tem- 

 perature and occasionally generalization of the pus- 

 tulous eruption, with cough, discharge from the nose, 

 etc., and if young subjects are experimented with, 

 the disease may terminate fatally. 



staining bacterium, pathogenic for small animals, which he de- 

 scribes as the cause of the disease. Smith, to whose investiga- 

 tions our knowledge of the etiology of Texas fever is chiefly due, 

 regards the intra-corpuscular body already mentioned, which he 

 discovered in 1889, as the causative agent of this disease. He de- 

 scribes it as occurring in several forms representing different 

 stages in its development ; the parasite, according to this author, 

 belongs to the protozoa (Pyrosoma bigeminum). The destruction 

 of red blood corpuscles, the essential characteristic of this disease, 

 is brought about by the direct action of the parasite. The latter 

 exhibits amoeboid motion within the corpuscle which it ultimately 

 destroys and then is found in its fi'ee stage between the cellular 

 elements. Attempts at cultivation were unsuccessful. — D.] 



29 



