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president’s address. 
The pathogenic bacilli are, upon the whole, more remarkable 
and interesting than the micrococci. 
The Bacillus anthracis, the cause of that disease which is 
variously called Anthrax, Charbon, Splenic Fever or Woolsorter’s 
Disease, has, perhaps, been more closely studied and investigated 
than any other morbid germ. Fortunately for us Englishmen, 
anthrax, at least in the human subject, is an almost unknown 
disease in this country ; but as it is pretty common in Russia and 
some other continental states with which we have commercial 
relations, its introduction cannot be considered impossible in view 
of the extraordinary tenacity of life of this microbe, at least in the 
dry state. Pasteur’s researches seemed to show that not even the 
interment of animals that have died of anthrax does away with 
the risk of infection, the germs being brought again to the surface 
of the ground through the intervention of earth-worms. More 
recent researches, however, show that the bacillus of anthrax does 
not long retain its vitality when buried in the earth ; so that it is 
unnecessary to burn the bodies of animals dead of this disease, as 
is generally recommended. On the other hand, the anthrax 
bacillus can endure a temperature of 150 degrees below zero 
without losing its vitality, -whilst its spores remain unaffected 
even when exposed to a dry heat of 253 degrees. It can be 
cultivated in artificial nutrient media, and its virulence gradually 
attenuated like that of the virus of hydrophobia by cultivating it 
at high temperature. Hence the inoculation of cattle with the 
attenuated virus of anthrax has been proposed and actually carried 
out in Russia, where the disease prevails extensively. The general 
results have been satisfactory, although in one instance, a large 
herd of cattle was entirely destroyed througli some supposed error 
in carrying out the process of attenuation. 
The bacillus of Cholera, called also the Comma bacillus, from its 
resemblance to a comma, v'as discovered by Koch, the famous 
Berlin bacteriologist. It is really a spirillum rather than bacillus ; 
and can bo cultivated artificially in nutritive media. Contrary to 
popular belief, the germs are not introduced into the system by 
means of food or drink, as vdienever they have been thus introduced 
