280 BACILLI PATHOGENIC IN MAN. 



guinea-pigs an ulcer develops 3 or 4 days after inocu- 

 lation, and this is followed by swelling of the nearest 

 lymphatic glands. If small quantities are inoculated 

 the process may remain for weeks in this stage, in other 

 cases acute nodular swellings form in the testicles, 

 the ovaries, the vulva, or the feet, and ulcerative pro- 

 cesses occur in the nasal cavities. In the case of 

 horses and asses the typical picture of glanders was 

 obtained . The most susceptible animals, and hence 

 the animals best suited for the diagnosis of glanders, are, 

 according to Molkentin and Griinwald, young dogs. 



From these results we can no longer doubt that the bacilli 

 described above are the true cause of glanders. The obser- 

 vations made by Bouchard and Capitan, which differ as to 

 the morphological characters of the causal micro- organisms, 

 have evidently been due to their defective method of culti- 

 vation ; for they made their inoculations into fluid nutrient 

 media from open ulcers, containing of course other bacteria, 

 and thus they must always have had a great excess of the 

 more quickly growing saprophytes in their cultivations ; the 

 majority of these may, as Bouchard describes, have consisted 

 of cocci, and the few glanders bacilli which were present, and 

 to which the virulence of the cultures was due, may have been 

 masked by them. 



Bacillus diphtheria. 

 (Loeffler.) 



Difficulties in As to the etiology of diphtheria, more especially of 

 inve^atiST 1 tne epidemic diphtheria of the throat, little that is trust- 

 of diphtheria, worthy is as yet known, although recently Heubner has- 

 made out some important facts with regard to the more 

 intimate process of the origin of the diphtheritic mem- 

 brane, and with regard to the ultimate part played by 

 the bacteria in the formation of the membrane. The 

 difficulties which stand in the way of the knowledge 

 of the ultimate causes of this disease are evidently 

 particularly great and manifold. As the result of our 

 recent investigations the possibility presents itself that 

 in the case of diphtheria we have to do with organised 

 infective agents which cannot be rendered visible by our 



