190 ESSENTIALS OF BACTERIOLOGY 



CHAPTER XXVI 

 HEMORRHAGIC SEPTICEMIA GROUP 



Bacillus of Bubonic Plague (Yersin and Kitasato, 

 1894) . Synonym. Bacillus Pestis. Bubonic plague or pest 

 is an extremely infectious disease, more or less common in 

 China and the East, and is believed to have its origin in man 

 from rats and other rodents. It spreads with great rapidity, 





Fig. 96. Bacillus pestis in smear from' rat's liver, showing bipolar 

 staining (X 720) (Wherry). 



especially among those living under unsanitary conditions. 

 The "Black Death" of the fourteenth century and the plague 

 epidemics of the seventeenth century are said to have been 

 the same disease. 



Nearly at the same time Yersin and Kitasato, working 

 independently, discovered in the bubonic swellings and blood 



