BACILLUS DYSENTERIC 131 



products of their life, and to a greater degree, by the 

 poisons liberated upon their disintegration. The 

 poisons are absorbed into the blood, giving rise to an 

 irregular fever in which sudden drops are common. 

 This sudden fall of temperature may be observed in 

 animals receiving doses of the poison. 



Dysentery is transmitted like other diarrheal dis- 

 orders, that is, by the pollution of food and drink by 

 discharges of patients, since the germs leave the body 



, < 



FIG. 38 



^ >% * % 



f -^ 



Dysentery bacilli. X 1000 diameters. (Park.) 



only by the feces. Disinfection of excreta, clothes, 

 utensils, and hands should be done as for cholera. 

 After an attack persons may be carriers, and disinfec- 

 tion of stools should not cease upon clinical recovery. 



The blood acquires some resistance to dysentery 

 bacilli during an attack, comparable closely to the 

 changes in cholera ; that is bacterioly tic substances and 

 agglutinins are to be found. Advantage of this is taken 



