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MALIGNANT (EDEMA. 223 



The spores of the oedema -bacilli appear to be very widely dis- 

 tributed. They are found in the upper cultivated layers 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. 

 The bacillus is not only pathogenic in guinea-pigs, rabbits, and 

 mice, but also in man and in farm animals, including calves but not 

 cattle. Pure -cultures inoculated in animals produce oedema at the 

 seat of inoculation 

 without appreciable 

 gas formation and 

 without any putrefac- 



tive odour. The odour * 



and frothy effusion 

 resulting from the in- 



oculation of earth are / ^ .^ 



due to other bacteria, \i 



which are introduced f 



simultaneously with X*~ / 4^ 



the bacilli of malig- \ ^ V 



iiant cedema. The _^ ^^^ 



spleen is sometimes 

 slightly enlarged. By 

 touching with a cover- 

 glass the capsule of FlG> m BACILLI OF MALIGNANT (EDEMA x 1000. 

 the spleen, or by ex- From an agar culture (FBANKEL and PFEIFFER). 

 amining the serous 



effusion, the bacilli are found in abundance ; but if a preparation 

 is made from the interior of the spleen or from the blood of 

 the heart, no bacilli will be found until several hours after 

 death. In this respect there is a marked difference from 

 anthrax. Another difference is shown in spore-formation, which 

 occurs in the living body in malignant oedema, but never in 

 anthrax. Animals which recover from the disease are said to 

 be protected. 



Protective Inoculation. Roux and Chamberland produced 

 immunity by injecting the chemical products in the nitrate obtained 

 from cultures in broth. The serum from fatal cases will, it is said, 

 confer immunity on other animals. 



There is a variety of this bacillus in soil according to Fliigge, 

 agreeing in morphological and cultural but not in pathogenic 

 characters. 



