iv MICKOBES SIMULATING THE B. PESTIS 65 



diagnosis, since the plague bacillus reacts positively, 

 caeteris paribus, by cutaneous inoculation. 



Though B. Bristolense possesses, as already shown, 

 pathogenic action for rodents, the statement requires 

 certain qualifications. Kabbits, for instance, appear in- 

 susceptible. Moreover, the virulence of the subcultures 

 rapidly decreases even for the susceptible animals ; a 

 comparatively small number of transferences in culture 

 suffice to diminish its pathogenicity. Feeding with culture 

 produces.no effect either in guinea-pigs or in rats. Mice 

 are killed by the culture in thirty to forty-eight hours on 

 subcutaneous injection. They show oedema at the seat 

 of injection ; the bacilli which are numerously present in 

 their spleens and blood exhibit good polar staining, but 

 are decidedly thicker than B. pestis. 



Dunbar and Kister (Centralblatt f. Bakt. und Para- 

 sitenh Bd. xxxvi. p. 127) found in the organs of some 

 rats dead on board ship, which were submitted to them, 

 bacteria of various kinds, not B. pestis. Some of those 

 figured by them, showing bipolar staining, clearly belong to 

 the tribe of proteus, others may have been B. Bristolense. 



4. Bacterium myxoides. 1 — A particular case of a 

 hsemorrhagic acute febrile disease which by most clinicians 

 would be, and as a matter of fact has been, classed as 

 hemorrhagic small-pox may be here quoted. This is a 

 case of a nurse, T., who was under the care of Sir Hugh 

 Beevor. She was taken ill on December 4, and she 

 died on December 9. The post mortem was ordered by 

 the medical officer of the London County Council, Sir 

 Shirley Murphy, to whom one of the attending physicians 

 had notified the case as possibly one of septicsemic plague. 



1 Report of the Medical Officer, 1901-1902, p. 549 and passim. 



P 



