242 



BACILLI PATHOGENIC IN MAN. 



Thus more especially Buchner, Zopf, Fokker, Archangelski, 

 and Roloff have observed cocci as a vegetative form of the 

 anthrax bacillus both in cultivations and in diseased animals. 

 Numerous careful examinations by those observers who are 

 thoroughly acquainted with microscopical technique, and 

 who know how to avoid the sources of error mentioned above 

 (page 182), have demonstrated the inaccuracy of this assertion, 

 De Bary states that he has observed in certain cultivations 

 (peptone solutions) a breaking up of the threads of the 

 anthrax bacilli into round bodies which become aggregated 

 in the form of grape-like or irregular groups, but which with 

 doubtful exceptions proved to be dead. It is evident that 

 these degenerative forms, which are very various, have not 

 the slightest claim to be designated as cocci. 



therede 

 bacillus. 



Bacillus osdematis maligni. 



Discovered by Koch as the exciting agent of malignant 

 oedema, a fatal disease of mice, guinea-pigs, and rabbits ; 

 formerly termed by Pasteur vibrion septique. Malignant 

 oedema has recently also been observed in domestic 

 animals and in man. 



Morphological The oedema bacilli, which are morphologically similar 

 to ^ ne anthrax bacilli, are rods 8 3' 5 p. in length and 

 i I'l p t j n b rea dth ; usually two or three bacilli remain 



united together, and then 

 the thread is two or three 

 times longer; indeed one 

 may frequently find long 

 pseudo-threads 15 to 40 

 /*. in length. The threads 

 sce m to be comparatively 



r 



stiff, and are often broken or 



bent ; at times also they are 

 ITT. 



looped and twisted around 



each other En stained preparations they frequently 

 present a somewhat granular appearance, owing to 

 irregular deposit of the colouring matter. Anthrax 

 bacilli differ from the oedema bacilli by their somewhat 

 greater breadth, their truncated ends, and their peculiar 

 segmentation in stained preparations. Further, one 

 does not find in fresh anthracic blood the numerous 



Fig. 66.-Baciiiu8 of malignant 



oadema (vibrion septique), after 



Koch, x 700. 



A, from the spleen of a guinea-pig, 



B, from the lung of a mouse. 



