282 CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 



tained in the diseased blood being sufficient to produce the 

 disease. 



The Imcilii are not always found in the blood of living 

 animals suffering from the disease ; indeed, they generally 

 appear a few hours l)efore death, which never takes place in 

 less than twenty hours, and then only singly and in very snudl 

 numbers. Their number, however, varies with the animal 

 inoculated; in the guinea-pig they are numerous, sometimes 

 exceeding the blood corpuscles ; in the rabbit much smaller, 

 and in the mouse often absent altogether. If the disease has 

 been induced by inoculation, they are present, though in 

 variable numbers, in the inoculation carbuncle. Though the rods 

 are not always found in the blood, the spores are said to be 

 invariably present, and some assert that it is their product that 

 destroys life. 



The bacilli rods are straight or somewhat irregularly outlined, 

 measuring from -arwo to -g-g" otttt o^ ^^ i^^ch in breadth, but they 

 vary in length very considerably, those in the spleen being 

 longer ; the shortest rods being in length generally about twice 

 the diameter of a human red corpuscle, the longer ones two or 

 three times the length of the shorter; but when carefully 

 examined, the latter will be seen in a ])r()cess of division into 



y^y 







Fifi. 14. — Anthrax bacilli and blood corpuscles. x 500. 



(Xew Veterinary College Mtseum.) 



two or more segments. They are Ijroad at each end, truncated. 



