362 PA THOGENIC BACTERIA . 



Sometimes the bacillus enters the body through a 

 wound, cut, scratch, or fly-bite. This is especially the 

 case with men who come in contact with diseased cattle. 

 As has already been pointed out, a malignant pustule 

 is apt to follow, and may cause death. Men whose 

 occupations bring them in contact with skins and hair 

 from animals dead of anthrax are not only liable to 

 wound-infection, but are sometimes the subjects of a pul- 

 monary form of the disease " wool-sorter's disease" 

 caused by inspiration of the spores attached to the wool. 



The disease as we see it in the laboratory is accom- 

 panied by few but marked lesions. The ordinary method 

 of inoculation is to cut away a little of the hair from 

 the abdomen of a guinea-pig or rabbit or the root of 

 a mouse's tail, make a little subcutaneous pocket with 

 a snip of a pair of sterile scissors, and introduce the 

 spores or bacilli from a pure culture upon a rather heavy 

 platinum wire, the end of which is flattened, pointed, 

 and perforated. An animal inoculated in this way gen- 

 erally dies, according to the species, in from twenty-four 

 hours to three days. The symptoms are weakness, fever, 

 loss of appetite, and sometimes a bloody discharge from 

 nose and bowels. There is much subcutaneous edema. 

 At the autopsy very little change is observed at the seat 

 of inoculation. The subcutaneous tissue beneath it for 

 a considerable distance around is occupied by a peculiar 

 colorless gelatinous edema which contains the bacilli. 

 The abdominal cavity shows injection and congestion 

 of its viscera. The spleen is considerably enlarged, is 

 dark in color, and of mushy consistence. The liver is 

 somewhat enlarged. When the thorax is opened, the 

 lunjrs may be slightly congested, but otherwise no 

 changes are to be found. 



When the various organs, which present no appreciable 

 changes to the naked eye, are subjected to a microscopic 

 examination, the appropriate staining methods bring out 

 a most remarkable and beautiful change. The capil- 

 lary system is almost universally occupied by bacilli, 



