xiii] MICROBES OF MALIGNANT ANTHRAX 283 



Bacilli anthracis when growing at ordinary temperatures 

 on a solid medium [e.g. a mixture of gelatine and broth, or 

 Agar-Agar and peptone) show a very peculiar modification, 

 inasmuch as some of the elements assume a spherical, oval, 

 or spindle shape, a torula-form, and as such they multiply 

 by division and form clusters or arrange themselves in 

 chains. By-and-bye each of these spherical elements 



Fig. 110. — Spores formi.vg ik Threads of Anthrax. 



X 700. 



elongates into a rod, and when all elements have under- 

 gone this change we have the typical smooth filament of 

 the leptothrix form. Some of the elements in such a 

 filament remain for a long time of a spherical shape, and 

 are much larger, looking like the sporangium of a nostoc- 

 alga. The most interesting forms are those where an 

 ordinary smooth filament of anthrax-bacillus at its growing 

 ends shows itself to be composed of a chain of torula 



