72 THE GROUSE DISEASE chap. 



of this kind is altogether absent in the chronic 

 cases. 



Just as in the case of the grouse bacillus, so also 

 with our malignant oedema bacillus ; animals that 

 have passed through a mild attack and recover with- 

 stand a second inoculation with a fatal dose. 



As has been mentioned in a previous chapter, 

 the bacillus of grouse disease does not form spores ; 

 the same holds good for the bacillus of our malignant 

 oedema. Complete drying kills the latter ; heating cul- 

 tures to 60° C. for five minutes kills all life ; no further 

 sub-cultures can be made. It is on these grounds 

 easily possible to separate in garden earth the 

 classical (Koch) anaerobic spore-bearing bacillus from 

 our aerobic non-spore-bearing bacillus. By exposing 

 garden earth mixed with a little sterile salt solution 

 in a test-tube to a temperature of 70-75° C. for five 

 minutes, 'the spores of the classical anaerobic bacillus 

 are preserved, while our bacillus is killed ; with such 

 garden earth I inoculated guinea-pigs subcutaneou.sly, 

 and now produced the classical malignant oedema, 

 the oedema fluid crowded with the classical anaerobic 

 spore-bearing bacilli ; by cultivation this oedema fluid 

 can be shown to be free of our aerobic bacillus. 



In order to ascertain further differences between 

 the bacillus of grouse disease and our aerobic bacillus 

 of malignant oedema, I inoculated yellow - ammers 



