202 APPLIED BACTERIOLOGY 



' 1. That in all cases of traumatic tetanus there are 

 present in the blood and in the spleen the products of 

 bacterial action — viz., albumose and certain acid organic 

 bodies. 



' 2. That to the albumoses must be ascribed the pro- 

 duction of the fever of tetanus. They produce none of 

 the tetanic symptoms. 



' 3. That the other extract contains the substances which 

 are the direct excitants of the muscular spasms of tetanus.' 



MALIGNANT (EDEMA. 



Discovered by Coze and Feltz — Forms spores — Method of staining — 

 Must be grown on special media under anaerobic conditions — 

 Occurrence of the disease — Method of obtaining a pure culture — 

 The baciUus is the cause of surgical gangrene. 



The BaciUus cedematis maligni — also known as the Bacillus 

 septicus — was first described by Coze and Feltz in the year 

 1872, and afterwards studied by Koch and by Pasteur. 

 The organism is a motile rod with rounded ends, about 

 4 fi long and O'l broad. It forms spores both at room- 

 temperature and ax, blood-heat. No development takes 

 place below 16° C. (Schenk), and the most favourable 

 temperature is about 38° C. The spores are mostly situate 

 at the end of the rod, and are stated by Sternberg to be 

 very resistant, but neither their death-point nor that of 

 the bacillus is given. 



Method of Staining. — The bacillus stains readily with all 

 the basic aniline dyes, and is decolourized by Gram's 

 method of staining. The flagella may be stained by 

 Loffler's method (Sternberg). 



Growth on Media. — The distinction between malignant 

 cedema and anthrax, which is not easy by the microscope 

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



