621 
of Edinburgh , Session 1881-82. 
After death putrefaction sets in very rapidly, attended with a 
peculiarly disagreeable and almost intolerable odour. 
Post-mortem examination shows all the organs to be normal 
except the alimentary tract, which contains patches (sometimes very 
large) of intensely congested mucous tissue. These occur chiefly at 
the pyloric end of the fourth stomach and along the duodenum, but 
smaller patches are usually found far along the small intestine. 
The inflammation is confined to the mucous coat, the serous coat 
over the patches remaining quite healthy. The swelling is chiefly 
due to flatus, but the cases we examined also contained a great 
excess of peritoneal fluid, though no evidence could be found of 
peritonitis in the form of lymph over the surface or adhesion of the 
intestines. 
A section of the congested mucous coat seen through the micro- 
scope presents a most extraordinary appearance. The tissue is 
densely crowded with large rod-like bacilli, and these especially 
crowd the interfibrillar spaces of the mucous and sub-mucous coats. 
The bacilli resemble the Bacillus anthracis , and they are found 
abundantly in the blood (fig. 3). 
During the winter we cultivated the bacillus in various media, 
and find that it cultivates w T ith great facility, even at ordinary 
temperatures. Under the microscopes on the table are to be seen 
preservations of the bacillus in its various stages of cultivation. 
The largest are those obtained by growing the organism in the 
peritoneal fluid itself ; next are those obtained in serum and aqueous 
humour, and by cultivating from these in thin meat soup the bacillus 
becomes gradually smaller and more attenuated. 
We hope that we may find that the attenuated bacillus may be 
found capable of being used for inoculating sheep, so as to insure 
them against death from this disease, in the same manner as has 
been practised in France with such brilliant success by Pasteur. 
Professor Tait’s papers on “ Beknottedness,” on “ The Form of 
the Meridian Sections of Saturn's Ring,” and on “The Velocity- 
Potential,” were laid on the table. They will be printed at the end 
of the volume. 
