MALIGNANT (EDEMA. 337 



rise has been especially studied by Gaffky, who 

 states that the organism is apparently identical 

 with the vibrion septique of Pasteur. 



Although very similar to the anthrax bacillus, 

 Koch points out certain morphological characters 

 which distinguish the one from the other. The 

 anthrax bacilli are a little broader than the others, 

 and the joints have concave extremities ; whereas 

 the others are rounded at the extremity. B. an- 

 thracis is motionless, while that of malignant oedema 

 is usually in active motion. According to Ewart, 

 the anthrax bacillus, also, is motile during certain 

 stages in its life-history : 



" The disease is readily produced by the introduction 

 of a small quantity of garden-earth under the skin of an 

 animal (rabbit, guinea-pig, or mouse). The animals 

 become ill very soon, there being no distinct incubation 

 period, and death occurs after twenty-four to forty-eight 

 hours. Spreading from the point of infection, the sub- 

 cutaneous cellular tissue and the intermuscular cellular 

 tissue become oedematous and reddened, the spleen is 

 enlarged, soft, and of a dark reddish-blue color ; but the 

 other organs are not altered to the naked eye. No 

 bacilli, or only very few, are found in the blood of the 

 heart immediately after death ; but the fluid obtained 

 after section of the various organs contains, numbers of 

 these moving rods. The longer the time which has 

 elapsed after death, the more numerous do the bacilli 

 in the tissues and blood become. They grow best in the 

 dead body, thus differing from other pathogenic organ- 

 isms. On section of the organs, the bacilli are found in 

 the cellular tissue, almost exclusively towards the sur- 



22 



