264 Veterinary Medicine. 



of the rabific brain matter through a Chamberlaiid filter and found 

 the clear filtrate harmless. The virulent agent is therefore not a 

 body in solution but a solid (organism) which is held back by the 

 filter. Hallier, Klebs, Galtier, Gibier, Pasteur, Fol, Babes and 

 Dowdeswell have respectively attempted the cultivation and in- 

 oculation of organisms found in rabific liquids but none has stood 

 the test of further experiment. Memmo found a blastomyces in 

 the brains of six rabid rabbits and one hydrophobic child. It 

 stains with the aniline dyes but not by Gram's method ; when 

 thrown into the peritoneum of Guinea pigs it produced clonic 

 spasms and death in 24 hours, and in the dog, after an incubation 

 of 8 days caused emaciation, salivation, a disposition to bite, 

 paralysis of the hind limbs and death in 48 hours. Bruschettini 

 using agar or bouillon, containing lecithin or cerebrin and defib- 

 rinated dog's blood, inoculated with pieces of the brain of an in- 

 oculated rabbit, obtained in 24 to 36 hours a grouo of small trans- 

 parent drop-like colonies at fir.st microscopic, but becoming larger' 

 with each new culture on fresh media. These colonies contained 

 a very small, short, thick bacillus, which stains readily in Ziehl's 

 carbol-fuchsin, and then prefsents a central clear band giving the 

 appearance of a diploccus. In fluid media spherical forms are 

 produced, but in fresh cultures the diploccus aspect reappears. In- 

 jected subdurally in rabbits it gave rise to what appeared to be 

 paralytic rabies and could be inoculated from animal to animal, 

 with similar results. It failed to grow in the usual culture media 

 from which the brain products are absent, thus fulfilling the con- 

 ditions, of a microbe the point of election of which was the nerve 

 cells. Marx who has sought for Bruschettini's organism in 60 

 cases of rabies has only once found anything resembling it and 

 concludes that it was merely a contaminating organism, which 

 caused a paralysis (Centr. f. Bacter. 1896.) 



Viability of the poison . Galtier found that the virulent saliva 

 remained potent for 1 1 days if preserved from drying. It persists 

 for 3 weeks in the brain and medulla kept at 0° to 12° C, for a 

 month in sealed tubes, or for several months if protected against 

 septic microbes and in contact with carbon dioxide. 



In water it is preserved for 20 to 38 days so that water soiled 

 with saliva may easily become a means of infection. In graves it 

 has been found virulent as long as 44 days after burial so that in 



