EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF MALIGNANT PUSTULE, ETC. 365 
of the serosity of the vesicles, round the eschar, is almost always 
sterile, while that of the tissues of the pustule give often, but 
not always, anthrax. One must not hope for concordant results in 
operating upon liquids whose properties are not uniform in all the 
points of the tumor, and vary according to the periods of the 
diseased process. 
Now that the virulency of the carbunculous pustule is -well 
established, it remains for us to inquire why upon certain animals, 
this virulency dies out spontaneously, and why, in others, it gives 
rise to fatal general accidents. 
Let us take two dogs with carbunculous pustules, developed 
at the same time, in the same place, for instance the axilla or the 
mammae, and let us follow them comparatively : the first, second, 
third day, the tumors in both animals may resemble each other 
exactly ; they will give clear serosity, virulent, more or less loaded 
with bacteridies ; there will be little fever and anorexia, but no 
digestive troubles, no prostration. From the end of the third, 
fourth, or the fifth day on one of the patients, the tumor may 
lose its red color, sink down, ulcerate on its summit, or will sup¬ 
purate and then the fever will abate, the appetite return, and the 
animal recover without treatment. But on the other, on the con¬ 
trary, the tumor, instead of passing towards resolution, remains, 
becomes marbled, purplish, the fever continues, the weakness in¬ 
creases, the pulse weakens, and finally coldness and death, as in 
the case of generalized carbunculous affection. 
These differences in progress of the pustule do not seem to be 
deduced from the aspect or size of the tumor, nor from the 
violence of the local irritation, nor the intensity of the fever. One 
must look for the reason of it in the concealed characters of the 
morbid process. 
Let us then take two other dogs in the’same condition, and 
after watching them, let us kill them the fourth, fifth or sixth day. 
Here is what we will find: 
Upon the one whose tumor is in -way of resolution, the liquid 
of the puncture has disappeared ; if a small quantity remains, it 
contains only leucocytes, fine granules, no bacteridies ; the blood 
vessels are free, there is but little extravasation of blood, almost 
