MALIGNANT (EDEMA 237 



method of staining. The flagella may he stained by 

 Loffler's method (Sternberg). 



Growth on Media. — The distinction between malignant 

 oedema and anthrax, which is not easy by the microscope 

 alone, is readily seen by their behaviour on culture. The 

 organism is a strict anaerobe, and must therefore be grown 

 either in stab or shake culture, or in a vacuum, or in an 

 indifferent gas. As growth occurs at room-temperature, cul- 

 tures in gelatine are possible. Development is accelerated 

 by the addition of 2 per cent, of glucose. 



The gelatine is liquefied, and gas is formed at the same 

 time. The gas consists chiefly of hydrogen, and carbonic 

 acid (Wiirtz), and has a peculiar and disagreeable odour, 

 due to minute traces of other gases. The same gas- 

 generation occurs in agar stab-cultures. Blood serum is 

 liquefied ; there is no visible growth on potato. 



Distribution and Pathogenesis. — The bacillus is frequently 

 present in the soil and in dust; in the intestine of man 

 and certain mammals; and has been found by Van Cott 

 in musk-sacs, thus affording an explanation why an injec- 

 tion of tincture of musk has occasionally been followed by 

 an attack of malignant oedema. 



The bacillus cannot easily be obtained by culture from 

 earth or dust, and so the readiest plan is to inoculate sub- 

 cutaneously either a rabbit or a guinea-pig with garden- 

 earth. 



On the death of the animal, which may occur in twenty- 

 four to forty-eight hours, the bacillus will be found in 

 plenty in the cedematous fluid, but not, like anthrax, 

 in the blood, except later, when it has multiplied after 

 death. 



Sternberg points out that the gas manifested in the 

 frothy exudation when an animal is inoculated with garden- 

 earth is absent, or nearly so, when the inoculation is made 



