144 BACTERIA IN THE SOIL 



animal into the tumour or swelling, which contains a large quantity of dark 

 coloured fluid, which emits a very strong and peculiarly offensive odour. Any 

 fluid that may thus escape should be carefully collected and destroyed. 



The carcases of animals which have died of quarter-ill should be buried as in 

 anthrax, or, still better, cremated on or in the place where the animal died. All 

 dung, fodder, litter, or other materials of a like character which may have been 

 on or about places or sheds where animals have died should be burnt, or thoroughly 

 mixed with some powerful disinfectant, and buried in a part of the premises to 

 which cattle and sheep do not have access. The sheds, particularly the flooring 

 and mangers, should be thoroughly washed and scrubbed with a 5 per cent, solution 

 of carbolic acid, and it would be prudent to repeat the process before they are 

 again used for cattle or sheep. 



A third disease-producing microbe found naturally in soil is that 

 which produces the disease known as Malignant (Edema. Pasteur 

 called this disease gangrenous septicaemia, and the bacillus vibrion 

 septique. Unlike quarter-evil, malignant oedema may occur in man 

 in cases where wounds have become septic. It is usually described 

 as a spreading inflammatory oedema, with emphysema, and followed 

 by gangrene. Man and animals become inoculated with this bacillus 

 from the surface of soil, straw-dust, upper layers of garden-earth, or 

 decomposing animal and vegetable matter. 



The bacillus occurs in the blood and tissues as a long thread 

 (3 JUL to 10 /UL in length), composed of slender segments of irregular 

 length. It is motile and anaerobic, and readily stained by aniline 

 stains but not by Gram's method, in this way differing from the 

 anthrax bacillus. The spores are larger than the diameter of the 

 bacillus, and usually centrally placed. The organism produces gas, 

 and so much is this the case in artificial culture, that the medium 

 itself is frequently split up. The bacillus liquefies gelatine. The 

 most suitable medium for cultivation is glucose agar at 37 G. 



Both malignant oedema and symptomatic anthrax are similar in 

 some respects to anthrax itself. There are, however, a number of 

 points for differential diagnosis. The enlargement of the spleen, the 

 enormous numbers of bacilli throughout the body, the square ends 

 of the bacillus, its non-mo tility, its equal inter- bacillary spaces, its 

 aerobic growth, and its characteristic staining, afford ample evidence 

 of the anthrax bacillus. 



Frankel and Pasteur have both demonstrated the possible presence 

 in soil of the bacillus of anthrax itself. Frankel maintained that it 

 could not live there long, and at 10 feet below the surface no growth 

 occurred. This may have been due to the low temperature of such 

 a depth. Pasteur held that earthworms are responsible for convey- 

 ing the spores of anthrax from buried carcases to the surface, and 

 thus bringing about re-infection. In any case it is well-known that 

 the spores of anthrax may infect a soil for months. The bacillus of 

 cholera, too, has been successfully grown in soil, except during 

 winter. The presence of common saprophytes in the soil is prejudicial 



