514 



BACILLI WHICH PRODUCE SEPTIC^MIA 



for all known spores have a much greater resisting power to heat 

 and the chemical agents named. 



Pathogenesis. Pathogenic for swine, rabbits, white mice, house 

 mice, pigeons, and sparrows. Field mice, guinea-pigs, and chickens 

 are immune. 



Swine may be infected by the ingestion of food containing the 

 rothlauf bacillus, as has been demonstrated by allowing them to eat 

 the intestine of an animal which had recently succumbed to the dis- 

 ease, and also by the subcutaneous injection of pure cultures. The 

 disease usually terminates fatally within three or four days, and 

 sometimes in less than twenty-four hours. It is characterized by 



FIG. 137. Section of diaphragm of a mouse dead from mouse septicaemia, showing bacilli in a 

 capillary bloodvessel. (Baumgarten.) 



fever, debility, loss of appetite, and by the appearance upon the sur- 

 face of the body of red patches, which gradually extend and become 

 confluent, producing after a time a uniform dark-red or brown color 

 of the entire surface. The discharges from the bowels frequently 

 contain bloody mucus. At the autopsy, in acute cases, the spleen is 

 notably enlarged, and the liver and kidneys are likely to be more or 

 less swollen, as are also the lymphatic glands, especially those of 

 the mesentery; the gastric and intestinal mucous membranes are 

 usually inflamed and spotted with ha3morrhagic extravasations ; the 

 serous membranes also may be inflamed, and the cavities of the 

 pleura3, pericardium, and peritoneum usually contain more or less 

 fluid. The bacilli are found in the blood vessels throughout the 

 body and are especially numerous in the interior of the leucocytes. 



