296 BACTERIOLOGY. 



they are cultivated by introducing a piece of liver or 

 other tissue containing" the bacilli, into the interior 

 of a sterilised potato (p. 113), incubated at 38 C. 

 The bacillus is not deprived of its virulence by cul- 

 tivation. The spores of the oedema-bacilli appear 

 to be very widely distributed. They are found in 

 the upper cultivated layer of the soil, in hay dust, 

 in decomposing liquids, and especially in the bodies 

 of suffocated animals, which are left to decompose 

 at a high temperature. From any of these sources 

 animals can be successfully inoculated. If a guinea- 

 pig, for example, be subcutaneously inoculated with 

 earth, putrid fluid, or hay dust, death frequently 

 occurs in from twenty-four to forty-eight hours. At 

 the autopsy the most characteristic symptom is a 

 widespread subcutaneous oedema, which originates 

 from the point of inoculation, accompanied with air- 

 bubbles, and contains a clear reddish liquid full of 

 motile and non-motile bacilli. The internal organs 

 are little changed, the spleen is enlarged and of a 

 dark colour, and the lungs are hypersemic, and have 

 hsemorrhagic spots. Examined immediately after 

 death, few or no bacilli are detected in the blood of the 

 heart, but in that of the spleen, liver, lungs,and other 

 organs, in the peritoneal exudation, and in and upon 

 the serous coating of abdominal organs they are 

 present in large numbers. If, on the other hand, 

 the animal is not examined until some time after 

 death, then the bacilli are found in the blood of the 

 heart, and distributed all over the body. 



