SYMPTOMATIC ANTHEAX 303 



Method of Staining.— The bacillus may be stained by the 

 ordinary aniline dyes, and the flagella may be demonstrated 

 by staining them first with Ziehl's stain, and then staining 

 the bacilli with methylene blue ; the flagella may be stained 

 by Lbffler's method. 



Growth on Media.— The organism is strictly anaerobic, 

 and grows best on media containing a small addition of 

 glucose; it can either be grown in stab culture or in an 

 atmosphere of hydrogen. Spores are most quickly formed 

 in agar cultures incubated at blood heat. In both agar and 

 gelatine gas is formed, and the cultures have a peculiar 

 odour, while gelatine is slowly liquefied. 



Cattle and sheep are almost the only animals subject to 

 this disease; guinea-pigs are susceptible, and die within 

 thirty-six hours after inoculation. It is stated that 

 cultures on solid media preserve their virulence better than 

 those in broth. 



Foot and Mouth Disease. 



Foot and mouth disease, or Eczema epizootica, is an 

 infectious disease of horned cattle, characterised by a 

 vesicular erupticm in the mouth and about the feet. It 

 affects also sheep and pigs,. and may also be communicated 

 to man. 



Up to the present time no satisfactory demonstration of the 

 specific organism of this disease has been made. Schottelius 

 has recently isolated an organism which he believed to be 

 the specific organism, but inoculation experiments did not 

 support this view, as the characteristic vesicles did not 

 develop on subcutaneous inoculation into calves. The 

 organisms described by this observer were streptococci, which 

 only grew at blood heat, and were stained by Gram's 

 process. The infection of this disease is conveyed by milk, 

 and usually produces in the human subject an aphthous 

 condition of the mouth. 



