348 THE BACILLUS OF ANTHRAX. 



Buchner has shown by experiment that infection in animals may 

 result from respiring air in which anthrax spores are in suspension 

 in the form of dust ; and in man this mode of infection occurs in the 

 so-called wool-sorters' disease. 



The question of the passage of the anthrax bacillus from the 

 mother to the foetus in pregnant females has received considerable 

 attention. That this may occur is now generally admitted, and ap- 

 pears to be established by the investigations of Strauss and Chamber- 

 lain, Morisani, and others. That it does not always occur is shown, 

 however, by the researches of other bacteriologists, and especially by 

 those of Wolff. 



Sirena and Scagliosi (1894) report, as the result of extended experi- 

 ments made by them, that anthrax spores may survive in distilled 

 water for twenty months; in moist or dry earth for two years and 

 nine months ; in sea- water for one year and seven months ; in sewage 

 nearly sixteen months. 



Marmier (1895) has made an extended experimental research to 

 determine the nature of the specific toxin of the anthrax bacillus. 

 This he obtains from cultures, at a low temperature, in media con- 

 taining peptone and glycerin. It has not the reactions of an albu- 

 minoid body and is not destroyed by a temperature of 100 C. In 

 comparatively large doses it kills animals susceptible to anthrax, and 

 by the administration of smaller doses immunity may be established 

 in such animals. This toxin is contained in the bacterial cells, and 

 is obtained by subjecting these to the action of alcohol, or from the 

 filtrate when cultures are made at a low temperature in a medium 

 containing peptone. It has not, however, been obtained in a pure 

 form, and its exact nature has not been determined. 



