RESUMED STUDY OF ANTHRAX 
189 
mate transformation of the mucedinoe of hay.* Bacteridie (bacil¬ 
lus anthracis) is, so to speak to anthrax what the acarus is to 
scabies. The presence alone of bacteridie in the blood “ indicates 
positively the disease.” f 
Carbuncular mycrophytes penetrate into the blood by differ¬ 
ent modes. 1st, by solution of the continuity upon the mucous 
membrane of the digestive apparatus (principally the mouth and 
pharynx) through the coarseness of thistles and plants upon which 
animals live; 2d, through wounds of external tegument; 3d, 
through the respiratory passages.^ In this last case, the microscopic 
algae,|| which produce the disease, being in suspension in the location 
where the growths of unwholesome pastures are inhaled by ani. 
mals down to the finest bronchial division. 
Introduced into the living tissues of the economy, and from 
thence into the blood, the parasites of anthrax give rise in it as 
well as in the capillary system, to disturbances which constantly 
end fatally, in seldom less than four days. In the greatest num¬ 
ber of cases, animals die in the first two days after the earlier 
manifestations of the disease. 
The changes produced by the presence of the leptothrix in 
the circulatory apparatus consist especially ; 
1st. In the disoxygenation of the blood; the mycrophites 
taking off the oxygen of the hematies. 
2d. In the alterations of the blood mass by the toxical pro¬ 
ducts furnished by the parasites. 
3d. In the obliterations of the blood capillaries by the col¬ 
lections of bacteridies in regions where their multiplication has 
* Neuere Torschuugen uber die Ursaeheu des Milzbrandes. Von Delius. 
Ueber die experimentelle Erzengung des Milzbrand-kutagiums aus deu Hen- 
pilzen, von Haus Buchner. (Journal de la Societe Agricole du Brabant, Haiu- 
aut, 1880, No. 47.) 
t H. Toussaint, loc. cit., jo. 67. 
t Hans Buchner. 
|| It would be better, on account of the origin of the carbuncular mycrophiton 
being known, to call it leptothrix of anthrax instead of bacteridie. But while 
waiting for the time when science shall have agreed upon the name to be 
adopted, we shall use indifferently, the terms bacteridie, leptothrix, microbe 
etc., to designate the parasite of anthrax. For the disease itself, it might be of 
advantage to call it bacteridiasis or better mueediniasis, by analogy with helmin¬ 
thiasis, phthmasis etc. 
