5^2 PATHOGENIC BACTERIA. 



The organism is widely distributed in nature, being 

 almost always present in garden-earth. It is also found 

 in various dusts, in the waste water from houses, and 

 sometimes in the intestinal canals of animals. 



When introduced beneath the skin this bacillus proves 

 pathogenic for a large number of animals — mice, guinea- 

 pigs, rabbits, horses, dogs, sheep, goats, pigs, calves, 

 chickens, and pigeons. Cattle seem to be immune. 



Gunther points out that the simple inoculation of the 

 bacillus upon an abraded surface is insufficient to pro- 

 duce the disease, because the oxygen which is, of course, 

 abundant there is detrimental to its growth. When an 

 experimental inoculation is performed, a small subcu- 

 taneous pocket should be made, and the bacilli introduced 

 into it in such a manner as not to be in contact with the 

 air. 



If the inoculated animal be a mouse, guinea-pig, or 

 rabbit, in about forty-eight hours it sickens and dies. 

 The autopsy shows a general subcutaneous edema con- 

 taining immense numbers of the bacilli. In the blood 

 the bacilli are few or cannot be found, because of the 

 oxygen which it contains. The great majority of them 

 occupy the subcutaneous tissue, where very little oxygen 

 is present and the conditions of growth are therefore good. 

 If the animal is allowed to remain undisturbed for some 

 time after death, the bacilli spread to the circulatory sys- 

 tem and reach all the organs. 



Brieger and Hhrlich x have reported two cases of malig- 

 nant edema in man. Both cases were typhoid-fever 

 patients injected with musk, and developed the edema 

 in consequence of impurity of the therapeutic agent. 



Grigorjeff and Ukke 2 have observed a most interesting 

 case of typhoid fever with intestinal ulcerations, through 

 which infection by the bacillus of malignant edema took 

 place. The case was characterized by interstitial crepita- 

 tion of the subcutaneous tissue of the neck and breast, gas- 



1 Berliner klin. Wochenschrift, 1882, No. 44. 

 1 Milit'dr-medizin. Jour., 1898, p. 323. 



