220 TEXT-BOOK OF BACTERIOLOGY. 



III. RATJSCHBRAND BACILLUS. 



The disease known by the French as charbon symptomatique, 

 by the Germans as rauschbrand, by us as black-leg, quarter-evil, 

 or symptomatic anthrax, has many points of similarity with an- 

 thrax or splenic fever. Like the latter it appears in the summer 

 months, disappears in the colder seasons, and attacks the herds, 

 especially the horned cattle; like anthrax it keeps chiefly to certain 

 clearly-defined districts — for example, the Bavarian Alps, parts of 

 the Grand Duchy of Baden, some portions of Schleswig-Holstein — 

 and within such black-leg districts there are again certain black- 

 leg localities. As the appearance and symptoms of the two dis- 

 eases are similar, it can surprise no one to hear that for a long time 

 anthrax and black-leg were regarded as one and the same thing 

 or were confounded with each other. 



Feser and Bollinger were the first to show distinct differences 

 between them. In black-leg we have as a peculiar feature the ris- 

 ing of irregularly-shaped, strongly-emphysematous, and therefore 

 (when touched) crackling swellings of the skin and muscles, which 

 have their seat chiefly in the quarters. The striking black-leg dis- 

 coloration of the diseased muscles is also unknown in ordinary 

 anthrax, and lastly, in the serous bloody fluid of the diseased por- 

 tions a micro-organism of "club-like" appearance is found which is 

 not identical with the anthrax bacillus. This is what Feser and 

 Bollinger report. Since then the subject has occupied much atten- 

 tion, and special efforts have been made to ascertain the qualities 

 of the supposed exciter of this malady. Arloing, Cornevin, and 

 Thomas have discovered a number of important facts regarding 

 the black-leg bacillus, and recently Kitasato has sut;ceeded in 

 breeding it artificially, and by successful transmission of the malady 

 to susceptible animals has given an indubitable proof of its import- 

 ance. 



The black-leg bacillus is a rather large, slender rod-cell with 

 distinctly- rounded ends, which occurs singly as a rule, but occasion- 

 ally in twos, but never in long threads. It has a livelj' motile 

 power, which, however, it quickly loses in the hanging drop, be- 

 cause, like the oedema bacillus, it belongs to the strictlj?^ anaerobic 

 species, and soon perishes if placed within the reach of oxygen. 



Its tendency to produce involution forms is worth noting. Cells 

 that have reached a somewhat advanced age, or which have grown 

 up under circumstances that for some reason or other did not suit 

 them perfectly, nearly always take forms which differ widely from 

 the normal one, and might even raise the suspicion that one had to 



