5 GO SPORADIC DISEASES. 



minute size of many of these branches, their behaviour on 

 staining; and further, that the contents, instead of being shrivelled 

 1)lood-corpuscles, differ very much from such bodies in their 

 uniformity of size, smoothness of outline, and high refractive 

 power ; but, finally, the appearance of identical filaments in fluids 

 from cultivation of the blood and spinal fluids of sheep affected 

 with this disease sets aside completely any possibility of their 

 being capillaries. 



The fresh spinal subarachnoid fluid obtained from spines in 

 which the jelly or muxa is absent, when dried on a glass slide 

 and stained with methylaniline, is seen to contain a consider- 

 able number of bodies, like those marked a in the illustrations, 

 and some epithelial scales, but no motile or rod-like bacteria 

 or bacilli. When a minute drop of this clear and fresh spinal 

 fluid is cultivated in mutton broth, even at the ordinary tem- 

 perature of a room, it gives rise to the following series of 

 chan<^es : — first, in about ei"liteen hours the fluid is seen to 

 be more or less turbid, and if examined microscopically under 

 a good light, and with power over 600 diameters, it will be 

 seen to be crowded with extremely minute organisms of a 

 cylindrical or club shape, with slightly rounded ends, these 

 cylindrical rods being either free or attached in chains. Some 

 of the rows are single, some douljle, and a few are triple or 

 even quadruple. 



The single free rods are motile, and stain readily with 

 methylaniline blue or violet, and when so stained are easily 

 observed. 



Figure 32, drawn from a specimen procured from a cultivation 

 in mutton broth of spinal fluid from an affected sheep, shows 

 these rods free and in several states of development, as well as 

 masses of zoogloea with bacilli embedded therein. 



A few hours later, longer chains are developed, and rod-like 

 bodies having active motion are very abundant, whilst at other 

 points distinct mycelia or spore-bearing tubes identical with 

 those seen in the glutinous matter from the cord are visible, and 

 masses of zoogloea with micrococci are seen scattered throughout 

 the field, — figures 33 and 34, c c. 



To gain an idea of the individual character of these rods, and 

 also of their attachment in single or multiple chains, I refer 

 the reader to figures 34 and 35. 



A free rod, as at d, figures 34 and 35, presents a some- 



