190 PROTEIN POISONS 



shows that he actually saw anthrax bacilli. He used a 

 crude compound microscope made by Plossl, and he gave 

 his attention to the blood corpuscles, chyle globules, and 

 the bacilli. His description of the microorganisms may be 

 condensed as follows: The third and most interesting 

 microscopic bodies seen in anthrax blood are innumerable 

 masses of rod-like, solid, opaque bodies, the length of which 

 varies from ^^ to 2iW f a nne > an d the breadth averages 

 3"oVo of a line. They resemble the "vibrio bacillus" or 

 "vibrio ambiguosus." They are non-motile and neither 

 water nor dilute acids, nor strong alkalies have any effect 

 upon them, and for this reason he concluded that they must 

 be regarded as vegetable organisms. He questioned whether 

 they existed in the blood of the living animal or resulted from 

 putrefaction, but was inclined to believe the former, and 

 thought they might represent the infecting organism, or at 

 least the bearer of the infection. It will be seen that Pol- 

 lender presented no positive proof that these rod-like bodies 

 had any causal relation to the disease. In 1856 Brauell 1 

 inoculated sheep, horses, and dogs with blood taken from 

 animals sick with anthrax, and in this way demonstrated 

 that the disease could be transmitted to sheep and 

 horses, but not to dogs. He found sheep highly sus- 

 ceptible, horses less so, and dogs quite immune. He also 

 demonstrated the presence of the bacilli in the blood of 

 sick animals before death. It is interesting to note that 

 he fell into an error concerning the motility of the bacilli. 

 He states that when seen in fresh blood they are non-motile, 

 but later they become highly motile. This was, of course, 

 due to contamination. It should be noted that Brauell 

 also made examinations of the blood of various domestic 

 animals suffering from other diseases, and demonstrated 

 the absence of the bacillus in these. In 1863 Davaine 2 

 published three valuable papers on anthrax. In the first 

 he states that in 1850 Rayer inoculated sheep with the 

 blood of others dead from anthrax, and in this way trans- 



1 Virchow's Archiv, 1857, xi, 132. 



2 Compt. Rend, de 1' Academic des Sciences, Ivii, 220, 351, 386. 



