206 INFECTIVE DISEASES. 



the heart and large vessels, fluid in the cavities of the chest and 

 abdomen, and enlargement and haemorrhage into the lymphatic 

 glands. There is in some cases inflammation of the intestines with 

 submucous and subserous haemorrhages. The spleen may be normal 

 in size, pale and flabby, and the liver only slightly congested and 

 friable; in other cases the condition is characteristic, the spleen 

 is the seat of hsemorrhage, causing more or less local enlargement, 

 which is superficially of a deep purple colour ; the liver may also 

 bo greatly congested, very friable, and marked with purple patches. 

 The examination of the blood of the heart and spleen for anthrax 

 bacilli must be carried out with great perseverance and discrimi- 

 nation, as they are present only in small numbers, and in some 

 cases have given place entirely to septic organisms, Inoculation 

 with the blood will produce either typical anthrax, or malignant 

 cedema or some other form of septicaemia. Possibly in the cases 

 arising from ingestion of offal the ulcerated condition of the throat 

 affords a nidus and a means of access for septic organisms. It 

 is also well known that blood in a state of putrefaction may 

 contain the bacillus of malignant oedema. In the presence of 

 putrefactive organisms the anthrax bacillus rapidly disappears. If, 

 therefore, inoculation of guinea-pigs or mice is used as a test for 

 ascertaining the nature of an outbreak in swine, it must not be 

 concluded, if Pasteur's or some other form of septicaemia result, 

 that the disease was not anthrax, while, on the other hand, the 

 discovery of the anthrax bacillus in the blood of the pig, or the 

 production of anthrax in guinea-pigs or mice, is positive evidence 

 as to the nature of the original disease. 



Peuch, in France, had obtained similar results by injecting pigs 

 with anthrax blood and anthrax cultures. He also carried out 

 some interesting experiments bearing on public health. The leg of 

 a pig which had died of anthrax was covered with pounded sea-salt. 

 PrevioiTsly to the curing, a slice of the flesh was squeezed in a meat- 

 press, and the liquid thus obtained was employed for inoculation. 

 The animals inoculated died of typical anthrax. In six weeks the 

 curing was considered to be completed, and a slice was cut from the 

 ham and soaked in filtered water. The juice was extracted in the 

 meat-press, and employed for the inoculation of four guinea-pigs 

 and three rabbits. Slight swelling and a certain amount of redness 

 at the seat of inoculation were the only results. A few drops of 

 the muscle-juice were added to sterilised broth, and produced a 

 mixed cultivation of micrococci and motile bacilK. A rabbit and two 

 guinea-pigs inoculated with the cultivation remained quite healthj^ 



