PRINCIPLES OF VETERINARY SURGERY 



427 



MORPHOLOGY OF NICOLAIER'S BACILLUS.— 



The microbe of tetanus is polymorphic. Microscopic exam- 

 ination of pus from a tetanus wound reveals fine, slender, 

 rectilinear bacilli, shghtly longer than those of Koch's mouse 

 septicsemia, and with longer forms that are almost fila- 

 mentous. The bacilli are motile and their movements are 

 slow. The motility is due to the abundance of flagella, with 

 which it is provided. It is the most bristly of all microbes. 



Fig. 40. 

 Bacillus of Nicolaier. Fifth day. 



In the bouillon cultures the bacilli are at once linear, from 

 5 to 8 microns long and 0.3 to 0.5 thick, and sometimes fil- 

 amentous and motile in the absence of air. In the sporu- 

 lated form they are homogeneous and regular. 



The spores develop from the cultures in eight to ten 

 days at the heat of the room, and in two to three days in the 

 incubator at 35 to 38 degrees. One of the ends of the bac- 

 illus swells and it assumes the typical pin or drum-stick 

 form. The brilliant spherical spore is usually at one end, 



