82 



THE AMEEICAN MONTHLY 



[May^ 



41 



it at once becomes a question whether 

 this fact is in opposition to the con- 

 clusion we have reached in regard to 

 the pathogenic action of this organ- 

 ism. 



When animals are inoculated hypo- 

 dermically with charbon virus this 

 does not seem to be absorbed by the 

 blood vessels, but by the lymphatics ; 

 that is, the Bacillus anthracis miilti- 

 plies in the areolar tissue and pro- 

 gresses slowly towards the lymphatic 

 glands ; when these are reached, its 

 progress is arrested until the inflam- 

 mation which it produces causes suffi- 

 cient changes in the gland to allow 

 it to pass ; when another gland is 

 reached, the same process is repeated, 

 and it is often a considerable time 

 before the bacterium reaches the 

 blood.* During this time the pro- 

 ducts formed by the bacteria are 

 carried into the circulation, as well 

 as an increased amount of waste pro- 

 ducts of the animal tissues caused by 

 the inflammation of the lymphatic 

 glands, by the increase of white cor- 

 puscles and by a general increase in 

 the activity of the bioplasm of the 

 whole body. The occasional result 

 of this increase of waste products, in 

 nearly all contagious diseases, is 

 death in the early stages from chemi- 

 cal poisoning ; it can hardly be 

 doubted that in charbon death may 

 occur either before, or, at least, very 

 soon after the bacilli have reached 

 the blood. 



It is further maintained by some, 

 however, that blood in which the 

 bacilli cannot be found may produce 

 charbon by inoculation ; and that 

 the disease so produced has all the 

 characteristics of charbon, including 

 the bacilli. From this it is argued 

 that the bacteria are an epi-pheno- 

 menon, having no connection with 

 the virus, and being dependant upon 



* Report of Committee which adjudged 

 the Breant prize to G. Colin. Comptes Ren- 

 dus, XCII, p. 599. 



H. Toussaint, Recherches Experimentales 

 sur la Maladie Charbonneuse. Paris, 1879, 

 pp. 98-9. 



the condition of the blood. Pasteur 

 has given an explanation of this 

 which is in the highest degree satis- 

 factory. When there are but a few 

 bacilli in each drop of blood, he 

 says, it is extremely difficult to find 

 them, for a drop pressed between the 

 thin cover and the slide has a dia- 

 meter of three-fourths of an inch, 

 and as we must use a power of 500 

 or 600 diameters, our field of vision 

 is reduced to about ^o'^ of an inch 

 in diameter, giving in the drop, if 1 

 have calculated correctly, 5,625 mi- 

 croscopic fields. It is, consequently, 

 next to impossible to say positively 

 that there is not a single organism in 

 the drop, if we rely upon microscopic 

 examination alone. But Pasteur has 

 demonstrated that whenever the ino- 

 culation of a drop of blood produces 

 charbon, the cultivation of another 

 drop in a sterilized infusion suitable 

 for its growth will produce a crop of 

 the Bacillus anthracis* It seems to 

 me, therefore, that there is nothing 

 here to cause any one to reject the 

 plain evidence advanced in regard 

 to the relation of the organism to 

 the disease, since the presence of the 

 bacillus may be always demonstrated, 

 by cultivation, in virus that is capable 

 of causing charbon. 



2. Bert's experiments. — It can- 

 not be denied that the experiments of 

 M. Bert were altogether the worst 

 bombshell ever sent into the camp of 

 the believers in the germ-theory; and 

 our antagonists evidently had a keen 

 appreciation of this, for years after 

 this investigator had recognized his 

 conclusions as erroneous, they have 

 continued to use them against the 

 new theory. M. Bert used charbon 

 blood that had been sent to him from 

 Alfort ; this he subjected to the in- 

 fluence of oxygen under a pressure 

 of fifty atmospheres. As this blood 

 still destroyed Guinea-pigs, it was co- 

 agulated with three times its volume 

 of absolute alcohol, added drop by 



* L. Pasteur, Letter to M. Bouley. Re- 

 cueil de Mddecine Vdterinaire, 1877, p. 917. 



