84 



BACTERIA. 



lets in the blood of animals that died from anthrax. The 

 latter was further able to prove to Jaillard and Laplat that 

 these non-motile organisms of virulent anthrax were actually 

 rendered inert by the growth amongst them, or alongside 

 of them, of motile putrefactive organisms, and that the 

 action of the anthrax organism was also considerably modified 

 by the growth of septic organisms, which, in turn, when 

 introduced into an animal by inoculation, were capable of 

 producing a disease which might perfectly easily be distin- 

 guished from anthrax. The knowledge that the septic con- 

 dition was not due to ordinary putrefactive organisms was 

 further augmented by Birch-Hirschfeld, who demonstrated 

 that pus which when fresh was infective lost much or all of its 

 specific activity when putrefactive organisms were allowed to 

 grow in it ; so that these putrefactive bacteria at any rate could 

 not be looked upon as playing any part in the production of 

 Avound infection. Then specific forms began to be associated 

 with specific disease conditions, or kinds of putrefaction and 

 fermentation ; the Goodsirs described sarcina in the acid con- 

 tents of dilated stomachs ; Trecul found his Bacillus 

 amylobacter, with its characteristic tadpole shape, which 

 gave rise to no wound infection, and numerous others were 

 observed, none of which could be proved to have produced 

 septic conditions. An organism which produced the color- 

 ation met with in blue milk was described by Fuchs, and 

 another perfectly distinct micro-organism was described by 

 the same observer as giving rise to a yellow colour in 

 milk. That the milk was not absolutely necessary for the 

 nutrition of these organisms he proved by making artificial 

 cultivations on other media, and he gave very fully the 

 conditions under which they could continue to exist ; they 

 were destroyed by a temperature of 50° R. to 55° R. ; freez- 

 ing did not interfere with their power of propagation when 

 again thawed, and after being dried and again moistened 

 they were able to develop in milk and to give rise to the 

 characteristic coloration. 



The way was thus being prepared for the discovery that 

 specific organisms had, under certain conditions, specific 

 actions and activities. If a peculiar organism was found 

 to be associated with the production of a special kind of 

 colouring matter, and if special fermentation and putre- 

 .faction processes were induced by individual organisms, was 



