IV CULTURE BY SUBCUTANEOUS INOCULATION 35 



The v4tality of the microbe is a very great one, 

 since gelatine cultures, kept at the temperature of 

 the room for more than a year and a half, proved 

 still alive, i.e. good and virulent sub-cultures could 

 be easily obtained from them. 



On making a post-mortem examination of the 

 mice that die, the following appearances are con- 

 stantly found : — Right heart contains fluid blood, left 

 heart contracted. The lungs show cedema and 

 congestion ; this latter extends generally over both 

 organs, and is marked by their being redder 

 than normal — sometimes deep red or dark purple- 

 red. The liver is dark red, and congested ; the 

 spleen is of a dark colour, and slightly enlarged ; 

 both kidneys are congested. At the seat of inocula- 

 tion the subcutaneous tissue shows sometimes slight, 

 sometimes distinct, congestion, or even sanguineous 

 infiltration. In the heart's blood the microbes can 

 be easily detected by cover-glass specimens, and 

 particularly by cultivation ; a droplet of blood yield- 

 ing, in plate cultivations, or in tube cultivations 

 (rubbed over the slanting surface of solid nutrient 

 gelatine by means of a platinum wire), sometimes 

 many, sometimes innumerable colonies. A section 

 having been made with sterile scissors into the 

 tissue of the congested lung, a cover-glass impres- 

 sion is taken of the cut surface ; this is then dried 



