SEPTICAEMIA OF MICE. 225 



According to Wooldridge, the chemical products of this bacillus, 

 separated by filtration, produce on inoculation immunity against 

 virulent bacilli. 



SEPTICAEMIA OF MICE. 



Mice inoculated with a minimum quantity of putrid fluid often 

 die of septicaemia. They rapidly sicken, their 

 eyes inflame, their eyelids stick together, they 

 become soporific, and death occurs in forty to 

 sixty hours. There is slight oedema at the seat 

 of inoculation, and enlargement of the spleen ; 

 the bacilli are found free and in the interior 

 of white corpuscles, both in the cedematous 

 tissue and in the blood capillaries. 



Bacillus of Septicaemia of Mice (Koch). 

 Extremely minute bacilli, -8 to 1 p long, and 

 1 to -2 fj. broad, and filaments. In cultivations 

 in gelatine they do not appear to make threads, 

 but the bacilli lie together in masses. Spores 

 have been observed. The bacilli are probably 

 non-motile. They are most commonly in the 

 interior of white blood corpuscles. In these 

 they increase, and in many cases a white blood 

 cell is represented only by a mass of bacilli. 



A minimal quantity of blood containing the 

 bacilli produces the disease if inoculated in 

 house-mice or sparrows. Field-mice have an 

 immunity. Rabbits and guinea-pigs inoculated 



in the ear suffer only from a local erythema, , 



J J ' FIG. 106. PURE CUL- 



which disappears after five or six days, and TIVATION OF THE 



renders them for a time immune. Rabbits BACILLUS OF SEPTI- 

 inoculated in the cornea suffer from an intense C^MIA OF MICE IN 



. a ,. ,, mi i_ -IT .e NUTRIENT GELATINE. 



inflammation of the eyes. The bacilli form m 



J After two days. 



plate-cultivations scarcely perceptible cloud-like 



specks, and in a test-tube of nutrient gelatine they form a delicately 

 clouded cultivation along the needle track. 



An identical bacillus has been isolated in swine measles. 



15 



