126 
ANTHRAX AND ITS CAUSE.* 
M. Paul Bert states that the blood of animals suffering 
from anthrax (“ charbon ”), when submitted to great pres¬ 
sure of oxygen, retains its mortal capabilities for ninety-nine 
hours, but no “ bacteria 99 were seen; similar blood, treated 
with three to four times its volume of strong alcohol, gave 
just the same results ; and he concludes that the bacteria are 
neither the cause nor the “ necessary effect ” of the disease, 
but that its virus is of the same nature as that of cow-pox or 
of glanders. He further states that the blood of the dog 
suffering from the disease is not poisonous to another dog or 
to the guinea-pig. 
M. Leflaive, speaking at the same “seance,” stated that he 
believed he had shown that in the Herbivora the poison re¬ 
sulted in a general affection of the whole system, while in man 
it only gave rise to a local affection, the blood not containing 
the virus, and being therefore incapable of propagating the 
disease. What obtains in man appears also to M. Leflaive 
to obtain in the Carnivora; in which case we get an explana¬ 
tion of Professor Bert’s results. At a later meeting* M. 
Bert stated that the results of some experiments on a guinea- 
pig, which had been poisoned with the morphological ele¬ 
ment (“bacterium”) of anthrax poisoning, and whose blood 
lost completely its toxic effects after a week’s treatment with 
compressed oxygen or concentrated alcohol, had led him to 
believe that there were two maladies confounded under the 
name of the “charbon;” that one is virulent and owes its 
origin to the matter precipitated by alcohol, while the other 
is merely micro-parasitic ; it is possible that the two states 
may coexist in the same animal, but where the poisoning has 
been of the virulent type, Bert found but few bacteria; in 
the guinea-pig it was noticed that the “virulent blood” 
killed in ten to twelve hours, and the blood-corpuscles were 
crenulated, while with the “ bacterian blood ” death occurred 
after thirty to thirty-six hours, and the corpuscles retained 
their original character. 
The volume already cited also contains (p. 442) an account 
of a pathological investigation on the human subject; the 
patient was a carrier of meat who had cut his chin with a 
razor; during life a drop of blood revealed the presence of 
long “bacteridia” ( T ' T mm. in length). The patient exhibit¬ 
ing a very low temperature (S3° C.), the respiratory gases 
were examined, and it w 7 as found that he, a man weighing 
* ‘ CR. Soc. Biol.,’ for 1877 (1879), pp. 12, 20. 
f Ibid., p. 317. 
