Disease Generated by Infusoria. 177 



fruited, though the fruit is really terminal. The capsule is 

 of a pale brown, of fragile texture, elliptical, with a short, 

 oblique point. Inflorescence monoicous ; fruit, autumn and 

 spring. 



DISEASE GENERATED BY INFUSORIA. 



M. Davaine communicated, a short while since, to the French 

 Academy, a paper on the discovery of infusoria, belonging to 

 the genus Bacterium, in the blood of animals afflicted with a 

 disease of the spleen (sang de rate). Following this, came 

 another paper by M. Signol, to the effect that these infusoria 

 had been noticed by Fuchs in 1848, and also by M. Brauell of 

 Dorpat, and by M. Pollender. He likewise stated that they had 

 been described by M. Delafond, in the Bulletin des Seances de 

 la Societe des Veterinaires , in 1860. M. Signol affirms that 

 they appear in horses suffering from typhoid disorders, in- 

 fluenza, etc. ; and he adduces a case of their appearance in the 

 blood of a horse that died of gangrene which supervened upon 

 a wound from a pair of scissors. He sums up his conclusions 

 as follows : — 



(1) "That bacteriums are not peculiar to the blood of 

 animals suffering from spleen disease (sang de rate). (2) That 

 blood containing them will inoculate and give rise to abun- 

 dance of the same creatures in the blood of other animals so 

 treated. (3) That the presence of fat in the tissues and fluids 

 of the economy, the obese state of the afflicted creatures, the 

 resemblance noted by M. Davaine between these bacteriums 

 and those occurring in butyric fermentation, establishes a pre- 

 sumption that fat plays an important part in these pheno- 

 menon/ 7 



M. Davaine resumed the subject in a second communica- 

 tion,* which contains the following remarks : — 



" In fourteen inoculations of rabbits made with fresh blood 

 infected with bacteriums, similar organisms were reproduced 

 and death supervened. In many cases the infusoria were 

 observed two, four, and five hours before the death of the 

 inoculated animal. In several of these cases blood taken from 

 the animals while still alive transmitted the malady and deter- 

 mined its death with bacterium infection. 



" The bacteriums are developed in the blood, and not in 

 any special organ. When by persevering search any of these 

 bodies are discovered at the beginning of the infection, they 



* See " Pasteur on Putrefaction," Intellectual Odseeveb, Sept. 1863. 

 Comptes Rendus, 10th August, 1863. 



