324 BACTERIA IN INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 



(c?) because the presence of dark-colored pigment in the 

 spleen of a rabbit cannot be taken as evidence of death 

 from malarial fever, inasmuch as this is frequently found 

 in the spleens of septicsemic rabbits. 



" While, however, the evidence upon which Klebs 

 and Tommasi-Crudeli have based their claim to a dis- 

 covery is not satisfactory, and their conclusions are 

 shown not to be well founded, there is nothing in my 

 researches to indicate that the so-called Bacillus malarice, 

 or some other of the minute organisms associated with 

 it, is not the active agent in the causation of malarial 

 fevers in man. On the other hand, there are many cir- 

 cumstances in favor of the hypothesis that the etiology 

 of these fevers is connected, directly or indirectly, with 

 the presence of these organisms or their germs in the 

 air and water of malarial localities." 



It will be seen that I am not able to agree with 

 the editorial above quoted in the statement, that 

 " the animals infected by them" i. e., the spores 

 of Bacillus mulnriw " exhibited not only the 

 clinical course of malarial disease as seen in man, 

 but also the post mortem appearances." On the 

 other hand, I do not find in the temperature-charts 

 published by Klebs and Tommasi-Crudeli in their 

 original report, and copied by me in my report 

 referred to, satisfactory evidence of the production 

 of a fever characterized by regularly recurring 

 paroxysms, like the ordinary paludal fevers in 

 man ; nor do I consider the post mortem appear- 

 ances sufficiently characteristic to warrant the infer- 

 ence that these animals died of a fever identical 

 with the malarial fevers to which the human race 



