103 



MICRO-ORGANISMS AND DISEASE, [CHAP. 



Archangelski (Centralblatt f. d. mcd. Wiss, 1883, p. 257) claims to have 

 ascertained that if an animal be inoculated with anthrax, many hours before the 

 bacilli appear in the blood, there are present numbers of spores. Just before 

 death they all become changed into the bacilli. He further maintains that 

 those spores taken from the blood can be shown to multiply by division, and 

 without changing into bacilli, by cultivating them artificially with exclusion of 

 oxygen. I have shown, however (Eeports of the Medical Officer of the Local 

 Government Board for 1883), that none of these assertions are borne out by 

 actual observation, and that they are erroneous. 



Any fluid containing proteid material is a suitable nutrient 

 medium for the bacilli ; they grow abundantly at all tem- 

 peratures between 15 and 43 C., best between 25 and 40 C. 

 They elongate and divide rapidly, and the bacilli grow out 

 into long curved and peculiarly twisted filaments which often 

 form bundles, the individual filaments being twisted round 

 one another like the strands of a cable. 



The bacillus anthracis grows best in neutral fluids, but to a 

 limited extent also in acid or alkaline fluids containing proteid 



FIG. 76. FROM AN ARTIFICIAL CULTURE OF BACILLUS ANTHRACIS. 



Convolutions of threads, each composed of bacilli. 

 Magnifying power 300. (Stained with Spiller's purple.) 



material. When growing in neutral nourishing fluids, it forms 

 on the bottom of the fluid characteristic fluffy whitish masses, 

 which are convolutions of the characteristic filaments. These 

 appear homogeneous in the fresh state, their ends being slightly 



