MISCELLANEOUS DISEASES. 



SYMPTOMATIC ANTHRAX. 



BACILLUS ANTHRACIS SYMPTOM ATICI (BOLLINGER AND 

 FESER) . 



General Characteristics. A motile, flagellated, sporogenous, an- 

 aerobic, aerogenic, non-chromogenic, liquefying, pathogenic bacillus, 

 that grows well in artificial culture media, infects the laboratory ani- 

 mals, and stains by the ordinary methods, though not by Gram's 

 method. 



"Symptomatic anthrax," Charbon symptomatique du boeuf, 

 Rauschbrand, "quarter-evil," and "black-leg" are names 

 applied to a peculiar disease of cattle common during the 

 summer season in the Bavarian Alps, Baden, Schleswig- 

 Holstein, and some parts of the United States, chiefly char- 

 acterized by the occurrence of groups of irregular, emphy- 

 sematous, crepitating, subcutaneous pustules, fever, wasting, 

 and death. Diseased areas are also found in the muscles, 

 and are most common over the quarters, hence the name 

 "quarter-evil." When incised, the affected tissues have a 

 dark color and contain a dark, bloody serum. 



The micro-organismal nature of the disease had been sus- 

 pected from an early date, but until the work of Bellinger 

 and Feser * the disease was confounded with anthrax. Later, 

 Arloing, Cornevin, and Thomas f studied the disease, and 

 succeeded in demonstrating the specific micro-organism, 

 which Kitasato J first successfully cultivated. 



Morphology. The bacillus is large (3-5 p. in length, 

 0.5-0.6 p. in breadth), with rounded ends, is occasionally 

 united in pairs, but never in chains (Fig. 1 74) . It is motile 

 when first examined in the hanging drop, but after a short 

 time, perhaps because of the exposure to the oxygen in the 

 hanging-drop preparations, the movement is lost and the 

 bacilli die. When stained by LofHer's method, a considerable 

 number of flagella can be demonstrated. Large oval spores 

 are formed and by their presence distend the bacilli, causing 

 them to assume a spindle or drumstick shape. Involution 



*" Berliner thierarztliche Wochenschrift," 1878. 



f " Compte-rendu de 1'Acad. des Sciences de Paris," 1880-1883. 



J "Zeitschrift fur Hygiene und Infektionskrankheiten," Bd. vm. 



595 



