396 PRINCIPLES OF VETERINARY SURGERV 



sess a negative chemiotactic action. If heated to 85 degrees 

 the chemiotactic properties of the poison become positive. 

 He also studied the action of the pure spores on the organ- 

 ism in the liberation of their toxin by prolonged immersion 

 or by allowing them to remain in the incubator for several 

 months. The spores thus obtained could be injected in 

 large quantities vi^ithout causing death. The inoculation, 

 at the point injected, was followed by abundant phagocy- 

 tosis; the leucocytes seized and digested the spores. The 

 best proof of the exactness of this deduction is found in the 

 following example : If in some manner phagocytosis is ar- 

 rested, septicEcmia evolves. The spores treated with sev- 

 eral drops of lactic acid, — a substance having negative chem- 

 iotactic action, — produces the disease, as the chemical agent 

 arrests phagocytosis. In the same manner, the addition of 

 a small quantity of the toxin to the spores is followed by the 

 appearance of phenomena that are rapidly fatal. 



ETIOLOGY.— PATHOGENESIS.— Renault was one of 

 the first in the veterinary profession to insist on the danger 

 in exposing the tissues and the possible complications of 

 wounds covered with blood-clots and mortified tissues. The 

 contused foci sheltered from contact with the air consti- 

 tutes a very favorable soil for the development of the dis- 

 ease, although it sometimes follows a small solution of 

 continuity. Delamotte has seen it follow a subcutaneous in- 

 jection with an improper syringe, and it is not exceptional 

 to see it follow castration, strangles, setons, and compound 

 fractures. 



It was quite frequent at one certain epoch and is not 

 absolutely rare today. It depends upon the abundance of 

 the bacillus septicus (septic vibrion) in their exogenous hab- 

 itat. Pasteur found it in cultivated earth where he was 

 searching for anthrax bacteria, and Cornevin afi&rms that it 

 is exceedingly abundant in the soil. He also found it in the 



