STUDY AND IDENTIFICATION OF BACTERIA 



spleen and the bacteria are not abundant in the kidneys, etc., as with animals. 

 Man seems, to die from toxaemia rather than a septicaemia. 



In woolsorter's disease there is great swelling and oedema of the bronchial 

 and mediastinal glands. The lungs show oedema, which about the bronchi is 

 hemorrhagic. 



The bacillus is 5 to 8p by i to ij^/i and nonmotile. In cultures it 

 has square cut or concave ends and is often found in chains, but in the 

 blood of an infected animal the free ends of the rods are somewhat 

 rounded. It is Gram-positive. Colonies, by interlacing waves of 

 strings of bacteria, show Medusa head appearance. For cultural char- 

 acteristics see key. Spores develop best at a temperature of 3oC. and 



FIG. 1 8. Anthrax bacilli growing in a chain and exhibiting spores. (Kolle and 



Wassermann.) 



do not form at temperatures above 43C. 

 placed. They stain with difficulty. 



They are oval and centrally 







Stiles thinks that animals are infected by eating the bones of animals which have 

 died of anthrax, cutting buccal mucous membrane, and so becoming infected. 

 Spores do not form in an intact animal body, but they do form ^ after ji postmortem 

 or the disintegration of the body by maggots. For this reason it is better not to 

 open up the body of the animal, but to make the diagnosis by cutting off an ear. 

 Dried spores will live for years and will withstand boiling temperature for hours. 



In vaccinating animals against anthrax, Pasteur used two vaccines. The first 

 is attenuated fifteen days at 42.5C. The second, attenuated for only ten days, is 

 given twelve days later. 



Various bacteria, especially B. pyocyaneus, show marked antagonism to B. 

 ^anthracis. Pyocyanase digests the anthrax bacillus and has been used to cure 



iN ot-iirviolc info^i-orl TirifV* * TifV TO v 



animals infected with anthrax. 



