37 



AM LI GN A NT (EDEMA. 



conditions originating in connection with the intestine in 

 the human subject. 



Microscopical Characters. The bacillus of malignant 

 oedema is a comparatively large organism, being slightly 

 less than i /A in thickness, that is, thinner than the anthrax 

 bacillus. It occurs in the form of single rods 3 /z to 10 ^ in 



length, but both in the 

 tissues and in cultures 

 in fluids it frequently 

 grows out into long 

 filaments, which may 

 be uniform through- 

 out or segmented at 

 irregular intervals. In 

 cultures on solid media 

 it chiefly occurs in the 

 form of shorter rods 

 with somewhat rounded 

 ends. The rods are 

 motile, possessing 

 FIG. 90. Bacillus of malignant oedema, several laterally placed 

 showing spores. From a culture in glucose flagella, but in a given 

 agar, incubated for three days at 37 C. snerimen is a rnlp 



Stainedwithweakcarbol-fuchsin. x 1000. s P e< lmen > as a iul e, 



only a few bacilli show 



active movement. Under suitable conditions they form 

 spores which are seen about the centre of the rods and have 

 an oval shape, their thickness somewhat exceeding that of the 

 bacillus, so that they project slightly (Fig. 90). The bacillus 

 can be readily stained by any of the basic aniline stains, 

 but loses the colour in Gram's method, in this way differing 

 from the anthrax bacillus. 



Characters of Cultures. This organism grows readily 

 at ordinary temperature, but only under anarchic conditions. 

 In a puncture culture in a deep tube of glucose gelatine, 

 the growth appears as a whitish line giving off minute short 

 processes, the growth, of course, not reaching the surface 

 of the medium. Soon liquefaction occurs, and a long fluid 

 funnel is formed, with turbid contents and flocculent masses 



