292 



CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 



On examining the food everything i,vas found to be of the 

 best and cleanest quality; but the Indian mutters were very 



Fig. 14 a. 



X400. 



• Blood corpuscles. 



I Bacilli of various lengths, but about ^jrhxi» in- in diameter. These 

 bacilli seem to differ from those of splenic fever, being rather smaller in 

 diameter, and, so far as my observations go, multiply by fission only, 

 not developing spores. This, however, requires confirmation. 



dirty, dusty, and mixied with the excrement of rats ; and from 

 this dust bacilli identical with those found in the blood were 

 cultivated; but in no instance did I succeed in obtaining 

 bacilli from the interior of the grain. From this it may be 

 inferred that the microbes were in the dirt surrounding the 

 grain, but not in the mutters themselves, and tliat by proper 

 washing and cleaning they might be a safe diet. 



This, however, requires further investigation, as animals have 

 died on the Continent presenting similar symptoms to those at 

 Liverpool after being fed on the legumen " Latliyrits sativus," a 

 bitter legumen, but whether from a vegetable poison contained in 

 the legumen or from bacillar growths has not yet been determined.^ 



In animals which have white skins, or where an eruption 



^ Further experience of the effects of lathyrus poisoning have led me to con- 

 clude that the hsemorrhagic engorgement of the throat and the epistaxis were 

 accidental complications due to the tainted state of the food in these particular 

 cises seen at Liverpool. The effects of feeding with lathyrus are now well known, 

 and will be referred to in the chapters dealing with Dietetic Diseases. 



