BACILLUS PEST IS 391 



may be prevented. Emmerich and Low 1 are inclined to 

 attribute this to the direct bacteriolytic action of the enzymes 

 upon the anthrax bacteria introduced into the tissues. 



In the literature upon the green-producing organisms that 

 have been found in inflammatory conditions several varieties 

 believed to be distinct species have been described; but 

 when cultivated side by side their biological differences are 

 seen to be so slight as to render it probable that they are 

 but modifications of one and the same species. 



BACILLUS PESTIS, YERSIN, 1894. THE BACILLUS OF 

 BUBONIC PLAGUE. 



Before passing from the subject of suppuration it may 

 not be inappropriate to call attention to the light that 

 modern methods of investigation have shed upon the etiology 

 of bubonic plague, an epidemic disease characterized by 

 suppuratipn of the lymphatic glands, and accompanied by 

 a very high rate of mortality, especially when the infection 

 involves the lungs, as is sometimes the case. 



This pestilence, probably endemic in certain sections of 

 the Orient, is one of the most conspicuous epidemic diseases 

 of history. Since early in the Christian era epidemics and 

 pandemics of plague have made their appearance in Europe 

 at different times. During and for a time after the Middle 

 Ages it was more or less frequent in India, China, Arabia, 

 Northern Africa, Italy, France, Germany, and Great Britian. 

 In history it is variously known as the "Justinian Plague" 

 of the sixth century, the "Black Death" of the fourteenth 

 century, and the "Great Plague of London" of the seven- 



1 Munchener med. Wochenschrift, 1898, No. 40; Centralblatt fiir Bakter- 

 iologie und Parasitenkunde, 1899, Abt. i, No. 1, p. 33. 



