50 ORIENTAL PLAGUE chap.ih 



conical, and some of them club-shaped ; they are Gram- 

 positive. In fact, they are non- pathogenic diphtheroid 

 bacilli belonging to the group of B. xerosis. I am inclined 

 to think that the "modified plague bacilli" which Dr. 

 Cantley and Professor Hewlett described (Pathological 

 Society, 1904), and which were found in a culture made from 

 the juice of a punctured " climatic bubo " (Cantley), are 

 nothing more or less than such xerosis bacilli belonging 

 to the pathological skin over the " climatic bubo," and 

 that therefore Dr. Cantley's contention that these climatic 

 buboes which, according to him, are " not yet plague "but 

 " may lead to plague," and which he wishes us to term 

 " pestis minor," receives no confirmation from the above 

 bacteriological fact, i.e. the presence of the xerosis bacilli. 

 I have seen such xerosis colonies in several instances in 

 plate cultivations made with material derived by puncture 

 from buboes associated with fever, which buboes were 

 connected not with plague, of which there was no history, 

 and which led to no further occurrence of plague, but 

 which were due to infection with Staphylococcus aureus 

 or other microbe. 



