308 BACTERIA 



the bacillus affects in particular two organs, the spleen and 

 the lymph glands. The latter become inflamed in groups, 

 commencing frequently with those in the armpit (axillary) 

 or groin (inguinal). The spleen suffers from inflammatory 

 swelling, which may affect other organs also. In both 

 places the bacilli occur in enormous numbers, Kitasato 

 considers that the bacillus may enter the body by the three 

 channels adopted by anthrax, namely, the skin, alimentary 

 canal, and respiratory tract. 



Haffkine has prepared a vaccine to be used as a prophy- 

 lactic. He grows a pure culture of Kitasato*s bacillus in 

 broth upon the surface of which some globules of fat 

 (** ghee ") have been placed. The bacillus grows upon this 

 fat in copious stalactite form. From time to time this 

 growth is shaken down, until after five or six weeks the 

 shaken broth appears milky. The contained bacilli are 

 killed by heating the fluid to 70° C. for one hour. The re- 

 sultant is the vaccine, of which the dose is 3 cc. Haffkine 

 believes that inoculated persons in India have suffered 

 twenty times less than non-inoculated living under the same 

 conditions. 



Plague isessentially a ** filth disease," and it is frequently 

 preceded by famine. Temperature and overcrowding exert 

 an influence upon it. The areas affected by the disease in 

 the Middle Ages, in the seventeenth century, and in 1894- 

 96 are alike in being characterised by filth and overcrowd- 

 ing. There is little fear, speaking generally, of the plague 

 ever flourishing under Western civilisation, where the con- 

 ditions are such that even when it appears there is little to 

 encourage or favour its development. 



Leprosy. This ancient disease is said to have existed in 

 Egypt 3500 B.C., and was comparatively common in India, 

 China, and even in parts of Europe 500 B.C. We know it 

 has existed in many parts of the world in the past, in which 

 regions it is now extinct. Some of the earliest notices we 



