342 IMPORTANT VARIETIES OF FISSION-FUNGI. 



Distribution. — Very widely distributed in soil, con- 

 taminated water, hay dust, etc. The inoculation of ani- 

 mals (best guinea-pigs) with samples of soil very readily 

 produces malignant edema (still more often than tetanus). 

 According to Home, the most various septic diseases of 

 domestic animals are occasionally produced by this bacil- 

 lus. The section reveals, especially at the point of infec- 

 tion, a marked, bloody, gelatinous, often wide-spreading 

 edema, with enlargement of the spleen. 



Animal inoculations are made in practice by the subcu- 

 taneous injection of anaerobic bouillon cultures, most con- 

 veniently with not too small quantities of the edematous 

 fluid from dead animals, or by the introduction of the 

 infectious material into a deep cutaneous pocket. Spores 

 without toxins infect with difficulty or not at all. The 

 administration of toxins or the negatively chemotactic 

 lactic acid increases the danger of infection very much 

 (Besson, A. P. ix, 179). Also, according to Penzo, as in 

 tetanus, the toxins formed in vitro are of the greatest im- 

 portance in the outcome of the animal experiment; small 

 doses of the pure culture he found to be without effect. 

 Very small quantities of very virulent cultures suffice. Of 

 the experimental animals, guinea-pigs and mice, and, in 

 distinction to symptomatic anthrax, also rabbits, are very 

 susceptible, and, besides, cattle, sheep, goats, horses, and 

 pigeons. 



The symptoms of the experimental disease in guinea- 

 pigs correspond very beautifully with those in the sponta- 

 neous disease. Also in the case of animals dying from 

 other causes, especially in warm places, bacilli may be 

 found in the blood (having wandered from the intestinal 

 canal) which are identical with or very similar to those of 

 malignant edema; therefore care must be taken in the 

 consideration of cadavers which are not fresh! 



In the blood of recently dead animals the bacilli are 

 not usually found microscopically (but may usually be 

 demonstrated by cultures without difficulty), and very 

 soon after death they spread everywhere, especially in the 

 form of long threads. In the mouse, which is especially 

 susceptible, there is also marked multiplication in the 

 blood. 



