MALIGNANT (EDEMA. 223 



The spores of the asdema-baciUi appeal' to be veiy widely dis- 

 tributed. They are found in the upper cultivated layers of the soil, 

 in hay dust, in decomposing liquids, and especially in the bodies of 

 suffocated animals, which are left to decompose at a high temperature. 

 From any of these sources animals can be successfully inoculated. 

 The bacillus is not only pathogenic in guinea-pigs, rabbits, and 

 mice, but also in man and in farm animals, including calves but not 

 cattle. Pure-cultures inoculated in animals produce cedema at the 

 seat of inoculation 

 without appreciable 

 gas formation and / ■ 



without any putrefac- / " 



tive odour. The odoui- .; 



and frothy effusion / . 



resulting from the in- | ,■ '■•';. ^ 



oculation of earth are / * ^ , » ■^■ 



due to other bactei-ia, -■■ <• . 



which are introduced |: r 



simultaneously with ^" . ■? ' ^^^ 



the bacilli of malig- -^V. ' \' v 



nant cedema. The ^ ' ^^^ 



spleen is sometimes . ' 



slightly enlarged. By "'^*^^£,' 



touching with a cover- ^''aB-. 



glass the capsule of -yig. 105. Bacilli op Malignant (Edema x 1000. 

 the spleen, or by ex- From an agar culture (Feankel and Pfeiffek). 

 amining the serous 



effusion, the bacilli are found in abundance ; but if a preparation 

 is made from the interior of the spleen or from the blood of 

 the heart, no bacilli will be found until several hours after 

 death. In this respect there is a marked difference from 

 anthrax. Another difference is shown in spore-formation, which - 

 occurs in the living body in malignant oedema, but never in 

 anthrax. Animals which recover from the disease are said to 

 be protected. 



Protective Inoculation Roux and Ghamberland produced 



immunity by injecting the chemical products in the filtrate obtained 

 from cultures in broth. The serum from fatal cases will, it is said, 

 confer immunity on other animals. 



There is a variety of this bacillus in soil according to Fliigge, 

 agreeing in morphological and cultural but not in pathogenic 

 characters. 



