284 BACTERIA IN INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 



phor, etc., is accounted for by the presence of 

 spores. This corresponds with Koch's results as 

 to the resisting power of the spores of Bacillus 

 anthracis, which, it will be remembered, are not 

 found in the bacilli as they occur in the blood 

 and tissues of a living animal. The superior 

 resisting power, as regards retention of virulence, 

 of the fluids of symptomatic anthrax to an ele- 

 vated temperature is also, no doubt, due to the 

 presence of spores. In a recent series of experi- 

 ments Arloing, Cornevin, and Thomas 'have deter- 

 mined the thermal death-point of these spores. 

 Fresh virus lost all pathogenic power when heated 

 for two hours at 80 C., or by subjection to a boil- 

 ing temperature for twenty minutes. An attenu- 

 ated virus of different degrees of power could be 

 produced by subjecting the material to a temper- 

 ature lower than that which destroyed it entirely. 

 Thymol and oil of eucalyptus were capable of 

 attenuating the virus in forty-eight hours, without 

 destroying the vitality of the microbes. 



In symptomatic anthrax, contrary to the usual 

 rule in anthrax, the foetal blood is virulent, and con- 

 tains the bacteria to which this virulence is ascribed. 



CEREBRO-SPINAL MENINGITIS. Leyden reports 

 the finding of "oval micrococci, in great numbers, 

 occurring both singly and in chains," in recent 

 lymph obtained by a hypodermic syringe from 

 beneath the pia mater of the spinal cord in a 

 sporadic case of this disease. 



