160 BACTERIOLOGY 



stood those forms of bacillus which develop spores in the 

 centre, so that, owing to the bulging there and tapering of the 

 ends, figures of a distinctly spindle shape are formed (see 



fig. i). 



The Clostridium foetidum is, according to Liborius, an 

 uncompromising anaerobe, and displays rods of various 

 lengths endowed with active motility. It admits of being 

 easily cultivated artificially, if the care is taken to fulfil the 

 conditions necessary for the growth of anaerobes. The 

 gelatine is liquefied in the form of roundish globular 

 cloudinesses occurring in its substance. Surface-cultures 

 on agar show little collections with short processes, and 

 colonies with irregular ramifications form in like manner 

 beneath the surface of serum. Development of a gas takes 

 place in the cultures, the evil odour of which has given the 

 micro-organism its name. 



Bacillus oedematis maligni. As long ago as the year 

 1872, Coze and Feltz found in their researches on septicaemia 

 a micro-organism which was more fully described by Pasteur, 

 and which obtained the name of vibrion septiqne, or Bacillus 

 septicus. Koch called it the Bacillus wdematis maligni. 

 The bacilli are found in the superficial layers of garden soil 

 and in dust from the packing of the floors of rooms, as well 

 as in various putrid matters during the process of decom- 

 position. Van Cott found them also in unprepared musk- 

 sacs, and from this explained the circumstance that patients 

 are occasionally attacked by malignant oedema after injection 

 of tincture of musk. 



The best mode of carrying out an investigation is to 

 introduce as much earth as will lie on the point of a knife 

 beneath the skin of the abdomen of a rabbit or guinea-pig. 

 The animal dies in from twenty-four to twenty-eight hours, 

 and the bacilli are found in the oedematous fluid and on the 

 surface of the organs, but not in the blood-vessels, whereas 



