BACILLUS DIPHTHEKLE VITULOBUM. 329 



varying in size from a pea to a nut, of a greyish-yellow 

 colour, and in part suppurating. On microscopical ex- 

 amination of the deposits in the mucous membrane 

 Loeffler* found, quite at the surface, numbers of all 

 kinds of bacteria, more especially of micrococci ; then 

 follows a broad, unstained zone, the structure of which 

 is unrecognisable, and in which there are no bacteria, 

 and it is only close to the tissue itself that we find at 

 first single, and then as we go deeper numerous long 

 bacilli, ultimately arranged in long wavy bundles and 

 dense masses, separated from the tissue by a narrow un- 

 stained zone on the farther side of which we see a dense 

 nuclear infiltration of the tissue. The majority of these Microscopical 

 bacilli are united together to form longish threads ; the the bacilli, 

 individual segments are about five or six times as long as 

 broad ; their thickness is about half that of the bacilli 

 of malignant oedema. As Loeffler was able to demon- 

 strate the presence of these bacilli with the same 

 characteristic arrangement in seven cases of diphtheria 

 in calves, we are justified in drawing a conclusion as to 

 their causal connection with the disease from the 

 constancy with which they occur. Cultivation experi- Cultivation 

 ments have as yet led to no result ; nutrient jelly, Shou? en 

 sheep's blood serum, &c., have remained entirely sterile result - 

 after inoculation ; in calves' blood serum a whitish 

 rim is formed around the pieces of organs which are 

 planted on it, this ring consisting exclusively of the 

 long bacilli, but attempts to inoculate fresh serum, from 

 this rim failed. On the other hand, the fresh diph- 

 theritic deposit was inoculated with success on mice, 

 while guinea-pigs and rabbits did not show any charac- 

 teristic disease. The mice died after 7 to 30 days ; Inoculation on 

 a greyish-yellow speckled infiltration extended from the ai 

 seat of inoculation, involved the whole of the wall 

 of the belly or back, reached often as far as the peri- 

 toneal cavity, and enveloped kidneys, liver, and intestine 

 in yellow masses of exudation. Other mice could be 

 successfully inoculated from this infiltration. In all the 

 affected animals it could be shown by the microscope 



* Mltth. a. d. Kaiserl. Ges. Amt., vol. 2. 



