66 BACTERIOLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS. 
assistance from a bacteriological examination in the 
cutaneous form of the disease; he may search for the 
specific bacillus in the sputum in a supposed case of 
wool-sorter’s disease, but he must be careful in his 
interpretation of his result, as bacilli which might be 
mistaken by an untrained observer relying on the 
morphological appearances alone, sometimes occur in 
the sputum. The search for bacilli in the faces in a 
supposed case of intestinal anthrax must be relegated to 
an expert. 
The true nature of a case which is examined post- 
mortem can easily be determined bacteriologically ; the 
cut surface of the liver or spleen should be rubbed upon 
a clean slide, and the films treated secundum artem. 
They will probably show the bacilli in large numbers. 
Sections may also be cut, or portions of the organs 
fixed in the manner to be described subsequently and 
forwarded to a bacteriological laboratory. 
In the later stages of any infection with anthrax the 
bacilli may be found in the blood. They may be 
apparent on examination of stained films, or by cultural 
‘methods similar to those used in the diagnosis of 
malignant pustule. 
The anthrax bacillus varies considerably in length, 
but is always a large organism and may be considerably 
longer than the diameter of a red blood corpuscle. It 
is much thicker than the bacilli which have been dealt 
with hitherto, and it is invariably straight. The ends 
of these bacilli are cut sharply at right angles to the 
sides of the organism, and may be even somewhat 
concave; this is a most characteristic feature. The 
anthrax bacillus stains by Gram’s method (Plate L., 
fig. 4). 
In cultures the appearances are somewhat different. 
