246 



THE DISEASES AND DISOEDERS OF THE OX. 



Anyone who casts his eye for a moment on the above picture 

 will notice the little rods, quite straight for the most part, which 

 are the much-talked-about bacilli of anthrax, and they will at 

 once see that in regard to the prevention and cure of this dread 

 disease, the questions to be decided depend upon the conditions 

 of growth and development of these minute vegetal organisms. 



According to Dr. Klein, any fluid containing proteid material 

 is a suitable medium for the growth of these bacilli ; and he 

 also states that they grow abundantly at any temperature 

 between that of 15 deg. C. and 43 deg. C, elongating and 

 dividing rapidly, and growing out into long, curved, and pecu- 

 liarly-twisted filaments, which often form bundles, composed of 

 filaments twisted round one another like the strands of a cable. 



Fig. 29. 



The above illustration (after Klein) is one of the bacilli of 

 anthrax artificially cultivated and showing copious formation of 

 spores. 



They are magnified so as to appear 700 times larger than 

 they are. 



When a thin layer of the bacilli is dried, they die ; but the 

 spores remain unaffected. The bacilli of anthrax are truncated, 



