278 
PROF. DESSART. 
much increased in size. It is often reduced to a kind of black 
pulp, which would run out through the peritoneal sheaths were it 
not for its fibrous envelope. The intestine is frequently the seat 
of infiltration, diffused or circumscribed. The lungs also present 
alterations similar to those of the abdominal organs. 
It is scarcely necessary to remark that all these morbid lesions 
are not always found in all cadavers. Neither do they exist to 
the same extent in all, the difference being due to the greater or 
less rapidity of the termination of the disease. They depend, 
also upon the type of the affection, leaving aside the rapidity of 
its march. Evidently, apoplectic cases will leave less marked 
lesions than those observed in other cases. 
3. Bacteridian Microbs .—It is principally in the state of 
mycelium, or rods, that they are found in the economy. When 
germs are seen under the microscope, it is with the characters al¬ 
ready described. 
In order to verify the presence of the microbs, fluids already 
in process of putrefaction must be absolutely rejected, for as soon 
as the phenomena of putrid decomposition begin to take place, 
the bacillus anthracis dies and breaks up, and gives place to the 
bacillus subtilis, the microbe of putrefaction. It is very difficult, 
if not impossible, to establish the distinction between the germ 
corpuscles of the latter and those of the former, which, contrary 
to the rods, preserve perfectly their vital resistance, even in a 
medium in full putrid fermentation. 
The criterion of anthrax upon the cadaver, we have alreadj^ 
said, is the presence of the bacterides in the medise of the organ¬ 
ism. But, to avoid in practice all unwarranted interpretation, it 
is necessary to add that post mortem researches, having for their 
object the discovery of the characteristic rods, are valuable only 
when made upon the cadaver a very short time after death. 
No special preparation is necessary for the examination of the 
blood of an animal supposed to be carbunculous. A very small 
quantity is placed between two glass slides upon the stage of the 
instrument. This is quite sufficient. Bacterides are seen in the 
mycelium state, placed between the blood corpuscles, sometimes 
agglomerated in great numbers, inter-crossed so as to form a thick 
