490 BACILLI IN CHRONIC INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 
gentian violet or fuchsin); or the aniline-water-fuchsin, or methyl 
violet solution of Ehrlich may be used, with the addition just be- 
fore use of an equal quantity of 1: 10,000 solution of caustic potash. 
Loffler recommends that cover-glass preparations be placed in Ehr- 
lich’s solution and heated for five minutes; then decolorized in a one- 
per-cent solution of acetic acid to which sufficient tropeolin has 
been added to give it the yellow color of Rhine wine; then quickly 
washed in distilled water. This bacillus presents the peculiarity of 
losing very quickly in decolorizing solutions the color imparted to it 
by the aniline staining solutions. For this reason the staining of the 
bacillus in sections is attended with some difficulty. Léffler recom- 
mends his alkaline methylene-blue solution for staining sections ; and 
for decolorizing, a mixture containing ten cubic centimetres of distilled 
water, two drops of strong sulphuric acid, and one drop of a five- 
per-cent solution of oxalic acid. Thin sections should be left in this 
acid solution about five seconds. The method more recently recom- 
mended by Kiihne also gives good results in skilful hands (see p. 35). 
Biological Characters.—An aérobic, non-motile, parasitic 
bacillus, which may be cultivated in various artificial media at a 
temperature of 37° C. The lowest temperature at which develop- 
ment occurs (22° ©.—Léffler) is a little above that at which nutrient 
gelatin is liquefied ; the highest limit is 43°C. According to Frankel, 
the glanders bacillus is a facultative anaérobic. Baumgarten and 
Rosenthal claim to have demonstrated the presence of spores by 
Neisser’s method of staining. Léffler was led to doubt the forma- 
tion of spores from the results of his experiments upon the thermal 
death-point of this bacillus, and its comparatively slight resistance 
to desiccation and destructive chemical agents. He found that ex- 
posure for ten minutes to a temperature of 55° C., or for five minutes 
to a three- to five-per-cent solution of carbolic acid, or for two min- 
utes to a 1:5,000 solution of mercuric chloride, was effectual in de- 
stroying its vitality. As a rule, the bacilli do not grow after having 
been preserved in a desiccated condition for a few weeks ; and in a 
moist condition the cultures cannot be preserved longer than three 
or four months—usually not so long as this (Léffler). The bacillus 
does not grow in infusions of hay, straw, or horse manure, and it is 
doubtful whether it finds conditions in nature favorable for its sap- 
rophytic existence. It grows, in the incubating oven, in neutral 
bouillon, in nutrient gelatin, or in nutrient agar, and still better in 
glycerin-agar. Upon the last-mentioned medium it grows, even at 
the room temperature (Kranzfeld), but better still in the incubating 
oven, as a pale-white, transparent streak along the line of inocula- 
tion, which at the end of six or seven days may have a width of 
seven to eight millimetres. According to Raskina, nutrient agar 
