70 ORIENTAL PLAGUE chap. 



ever, even in small doses, caused invariably a fatal result in twenty 

 to thirty hours. The post-mortem appearances were as follows : — 

 Copious grey viscid peritoneal exudation ; intestines much inflamed ; 

 liver, spleen, and kidneys highly congested. 



The peritoneal exudation of these guinea-pigs in stained film 

 specimens showed crowds of oval to cylindrical bacilli, often in 

 couples end to end. The conspicuous thing about them was their 

 exquisite bipolar staining; no leucocytes and no other microbes 

 were present. Plate cultures proved that the exudation was a pure 

 culture of Bacterium myxoides. There was nowhere any indication of 

 a capsule around individual bacilli, but the matrix in which the 

 bacilli were embedded was a homogeneous viscid stainable substance, 

 similar to that mentioned in regard of the zooglcea matrix of the 

 culture. 



The blood of these guinea-pigs contained a very large number of 

 the same microbes, viz. the B. myxoides ; so much so that in a dried 

 and stained film specimen of the heart's blood every field of the 

 microscope contained great numbers of the bacilli ; some fields, 

 indeed, appeared crowded. The bacilli showed no trace of a capsule, 

 but they all showed very distinct bipolar staining. The majority 

 of the bacilli in the blood were rounded at both ends, but some 

 showed one end, seldom both, as if cut away. The bacilli in the 

 blood were distinctly thicker than those of plague. 



The subcutaneous injection of culture of the microbe into mice 

 always produced acute disease and death in three to four days. At 

 the seat of inoculation inflammation and gangrene were apparent ; 

 the spleen was found enlarged, congested j the peritoneum inflamed ; 

 all the viscera were hyperaemic. The bacilli (B. myxoides) were 

 readily demonstrated by film specimens and in culture, being very 

 numerously present at the seat of injection, in the blood, in the 

 spleen, and particularly in the peritoneal exudation ; the latter 

 appeared densely crowded with them. Rabbits are unsusceptible 

 alike to subcutaneous and intravenous injection of large doses of 

 culture. 



It has been shown, then, that in the blood of Nurse T. there 

 were present two virulent species of microbes, — the one, the Diplo- 

 coccus pneumoniae, in enormous numbers, so much so that its presence 

 in the blood would be quite sufficient to account for the severe 

 illness and death with haemorrhages ; the other microbe, the Bacterium 

 myxoides, although not present in large numbers, is nevertheless a 



