.1 790 ] 



completely destroyed, whereas that the vegetating myclelia 

 require rays of the sun for a much longer time. M. Nocardet 

 and M. Duclaux have propounded the hypothesis that the 

 action of the rays of the sun influences much more the 

 culture than the spores themselves. To verify this assertion 

 M. Straus proceeded as follows, he placed spores in pure 

 distilled water, and in these conditions they resisted the 

 rays of the sun for four hours, whereas in broth they were 

 destroyed in two hours. He found that an exposure to the 

 sun for two hours was sufficient to destroy young spores, 

 i. e., spores not more than about three months old. Older 

 spores resist the action of light longer. 



1,356. If it is suspected that animals are dying of 

 anthrax in any district, and if it is impossible for the proper 

 authority to proceed to the spot at once, and ascertain the 

 truth about it with the microscope, a local officer, or any 

 other person interested, is to be instructed to inoculate 

 a rabbit or a goat with the blood of an animal dying of 

 the plague not more than 12 hours previously. If the blood 

 was allowed to become putrefied, the rabbit or the goat 

 would be inoculated with septic vibrions instead of bacillus 

 anthracis, and it would die of septicimcea, and in this case it 

 would not be possible to make a diagnosis for anthrax. This 

 rabbit must be sent immediately to a bacteriological labora- 

 tory. If, when the animal is dissected after death, bacillus 

 anthracis is discovered in the blood, the blood of the spleen 

 and the heart must be specially examined before one should 

 be quite sure, and then the local authority or the proprietors 

 must be written to at once to have their flocks vaccinated in 

 that district. Mortality will probably continue in the flocks 

 even after the animals have been inoculated with the first vac- 

 cine. But 8 or 10 days after the inoculation with the second 

 or the deuxieme vaccine mortality should cease. If mortality 

 continues after this complete vaccination, it would be caused 

 by a very great intensity of the disease. Then a special 



