////. BACILLUS OF SYMPTOMATIC ANTHRAX 389 



Roux lias alone been practically employed on a large scale. According 

 to these authors, two anthrax cultures of different degrees of virulence 

 attenuated by cultivation at 42 to 43 C., are used for inoculation. 

 Vaccine No. 1 kills mice, but not guinea-pigs; vaccine No. 2 kills guinea- 

 pigs, but not rabbits, according to Koch, Gaffky, and Loeffler. The 

 animals to be inoculated viz., sheep and cattle are first given a sub- 

 cutaneous injection of one to several tenths of a cubic centimetre of a 

 four-day-old bouillon culture of Vaccine No. 1 ; after ten to twelve days 

 they receive a similar dose of Vaccine No. 2. Prophylactic inoculations 

 given in this way have been widely employed in France, Hungary, 

 and Russia, with apparently good results. 



Bacterial Cultures for Diagnosis. The detection of the anthrax 

 bacillus is ordinarily not difficult, as this organism presents morpho- 

 logical, biological, and pathogenic characteristics which distinguish it 

 from all other bacteria. In the later stages of the disease, however, 

 the bacilli may be absent or difficult to find, and cultivation on artificial 

 media and experimental inoculation in animals are not always fol- 

 lowed by positive results. Even in sections taken from the extirpated 

 pustule it is sometimes difficult to detect the bacilli. In such cases 

 only a probable diagnosis of anthrax can be made. It should be remem- 

 bered that the bacilli are not found in the blood until shortly before 

 death, and then only in varying quantity; thus blood examinations 

 often give negative results, though the bacilli may be present in large 

 numbers in the spleen, kidneys, and other organs of the body. The 

 suspected material should be streaked over nutrient agar in Petri plates 

 and inoculated in mice. 



Differential Diagnosis. Among other bacteria which may possibly be 

 mistaken for anthrax bacilli are the bacillus subtilis and the bacillus 

 of malignant oedema. The former is distinguished by its motility, by 

 various cultural peculiarities, and by being non-pathogenic. The 

 latter differs from the anthrax bacillus in form and motility, in being 

 decolorized by Gram's solution, in being a strict anaerobe, and in 

 various pathogenic properties. 



The diagnosis of internal anthrax in man is by no means easy, unless 

 the history points definitely to infection in the occupation of the indi- 

 vidual. In cases of doubt cultures should be made and inoculations 

 performed in animals. According to Cornil and Babes, some of these 

 cases may possibly be caused by organisms other than the bacillus of 

 anthrax. 



Bacillus Anthracis Symptomatic! (Bacillus of Symptomatic 



Anthrax). 



Like the bacilli of anthrax and of malignant oedema, both of which 

 it resembles in other respects also, the bacillus of symptomatic anthrax 

 is an inhabitant of the soil. It is found as the chief cause of the dis- 

 ease in animals principally cattle and sheep known as "black leg," 

 "quarter evil," or symptomatic anthrax (rausch brand, German; charbon 

 symptomatic pie, French), a disease which prevails in certain localities 



