430 THE BACILLUS OF ANTHRAX. 
covery may occur after subcutaneous or intravenous injection of a 
very small number of bacilli. 
Infection in cattle and sheep commonly results from the ingestion 
of spores while grazing in infected pastures. The bacillus itself, in 
the absence of spores, is destroyed in the stomach. While spores are 
not formed in the bodies of living animals, their discharges contain 
the bacillus, and this is able to multiply in them and to form spores 
upon the surface of the ground when temperature conditions are 
favorable. Itis probable that this is the usual way in which pastures 
become infected, and that the bloody discharges from the bladder 
and bowels of animals suffering from the disease furnish a nidus for 
the external development of these reproductive elements ; as also do 
the fluids escaping from the bodies of dead animals. And possibly, 
under specially favorable conditions, the bacillus may lead a sapro- 
phytic existence for a considerable time in the superficial layers of the 
soil. 
Buchner has shown by experiment that infection in animals may 
result from respiring air in which anthrax spores are in suspension 
in the form of dust ; and in man this mode of infection occurs in the 
so-called wool-sorters’ disease. 
The question of the passage of the anthrax bacillus from the 
mother to the foetus in pregnant females has received considerable 
attention. That this may occur is now generally admitted, and ap- 
pears to be established by the investigations of Strauss and Chamber- 
lain, Morisani, and others. That it does not always occur is shown, 
however, by the researches of other bacteriologists, and especially by 
those of Wolff. 
Sirena and Scagliosi (1894) report, as the result of extended experi- 
ments made by them, that anthrax spores may survive in distilled 
water for twenty months; in moist or dry earth for two years and 
nine months; in sea-water for one year and seven months; in sewage 
nearly sixteen months. 
Marmier (1895) has made an extended experimental research to 
determine the nature of the specific toxin of the anthrax bacillus. 
This he obtains from cultures, at a low temperature, in media con- 
taining peptone and glycerin. It has not the reactions of an albu- 
minoid body and is not destroyed by a temperature of 100°C. In 
comparatively large doses it kills animals susceptible to anthrax, and 
by the administration of smaller doses immunity may be established 
in such animals. This toxin is contained in the bacterial cells, and 
is obtained by subjecting these to the action of alcohol, or from the 
filtrate when cultures are made ata low temperature in a medium 
containing peptone. It has not, however, been obtained in a pure 
form, and its exact nature has not been determined. 
