164 PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BACTERIA. 



an infected animal, and sowing it upon the food 

 given to an animal in good health, the latter has 

 contracted the disease. 



Malignant Pustule without Bacteria. — Besides 

 the numerous facts concerning charbon, in which 

 the presence of a bacterium has been verified, it 

 is proper to cite those cases in which none has 

 been discovered. Some authorities, such as Tous- 

 saint, Mannoury, and Salmon, who have given 

 these instances, consider this absence of bacteria 

 a favorable prognostic sign. The following well- 

 marked example has recently been observed : — 



Louis Donin, a tanner, aged forty, was admitted 

 to the Hotel-Dieu of Lyons, June 15th, 1876, 

 service of Fochier. On the morning of June 13, 

 he had noticed three large flies, eagerly attacking 

 the skins upon which he was working. One of 

 them bit him in the face. The same day his cheek 

 swelled ; during the night a large vesicle formed, 

 surrounded by an areola of other smaller vesicles; 

 the skin having become pruriginous, Donin rubbed 

 the central vesicle. Upon his arrival his general 

 condition was satisfactory. Upon his left cheek 

 was seen an areola of little vesicles surrounding 

 a slough having a diameter of less than a centi- 

 meter. The periphery was oedematous and hard, 

 trembling and extended downwards as far as the 

 xiphoid appendix. The eyelids and the oedema- 

 tous lips were opened with difficulty. In order to 

 verify the diagnosis, Toussaint inoculated a rabbit 

 with the debris of a pustule; a second, with blood; 



