OTHEE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 147 



the other hand, an aerobie, it is clear that the two 

 microbes cannot exist simultaneously in the blood or 

 in the same culture liquid. 



The inoculation with this fresh microbe is no less 

 fatal; its action is even more rapid than that of 

 Bacillus anthracis, but the lesions are not the same; the 

 spleen remains normal, while the liver is discoloured. 



The septic vibrio is only found in minute quantities 

 in the blood, so that it has escaped the notice of many 

 observers. It is, however, found in immense numbers 

 in the muscles, in the serous fluid of the intestines, and 

 of other organs. It is very common in the intestines, 

 and is probably the beginning of putrefaction. 



VI. RABIES. 



Rabies is a canine disease which is communicated 

 by a bite, and the inoculation of man and other 

 animals by the saliva. We are not yet precisely 

 acquainted with the microbe which causes the disease, 

 but Pasteur's recent researches have thrown consider- 

 able light on its life-history, which is still, however, 

 too much involved in obscurity. 



It must first be observed that the hypothetical 

 microbe of rabies, which no one has yet discovered, 

 should not be confounded with the microbe of human 

 saliva ; this is found in the mouths of healthy persons, 

 and will be briefly discussed in the following chapter. 



