292 MICRO-ORGANISMS AND DISEASE [chap. 



Bacillus anthracis is capable, as we have seen, of growing 

 well outside the body, and, when well supplied with oxygen 

 from the air, of forming spores which represent the per- 

 manent seeds. Thus if animals, such as sheep and cattle, 

 die of anthrax in a field the effusions of such animals 

 {e.g. urine, blood, sanguineous effluvia from the mouth and 

 nostrils) always contain numbers of the bacilli, and these will 

 be able to grow indefinitely on the surface of the soil, there 

 being always present a large amount of suitable nourishing 

 material, as vegetable and animal decaying matter, and since 

 free access of air is always ensured they will eventually form 

 spores. Such soils, owing to the presence of these spores, 

 will remain a permanent source of infection to sheep and 

 cattle sojourning on them (Koch). 



Acute infection of rag-sorters with anthrax has been ob- 

 served several times (Paltauf, JVhiier Klin. Wochens., 1888, 

 Nos. 18-26), but not all acute infectious diseases contracted 

 by the sorters of old rags are anthrax, as has been shown by 

 Bordoni Uffreduzzi {Zeitschr. f. Hygiene, III., 2, p. 333). 

 From a fatal case, in which the post-mortem examination 

 showed enlarged spleen, congestion, and haemorrhage of the 

 lung, lymph glands, and serous membranes, this observer 

 isolated a non-sporing motile bacillus which in many points 

 resembles the proteus of Hauser. Bordoni Uffreduzzi calls it 

 proteus hominis capsulatus ; it does not liquefy gelatine and 

 acts virulently on dogs and mice, rabbits and guinea-pigs 

 being less susceptible. 



Bacillus of ulcerative stomatitis in the calf. — In the Lancet 

 of May, 1883, A. Lingard and E. Batt described pecu- 

 liar bacilH in ulcerations occurring on the tongue and 

 buccal mucous membrane of the calf. "The typical ulcer 

 in advanced cases consists of a sore with free overhanging 

 edges. On section through the sore the tongue is found 



