58 
D. MOEACHRAN. 
characterized as follows :—According to Colin’s recent systematic 
classification of bacteria, anthrax bacteria belong to the group 
known as filamentous bacteria (desmobacteria) and to the species 
bacilus. The bacillus anthricis (Cohn) is closely related to the 
bacillus subtilis (vitras subtilis, Ehrenberg) to the butyric acid 
ferment ( ferment butyrique —Pasteur.) 
Bacilli , such as are almost constantly found in the blood of 
animals suffering from anthrax, possess the following morpholog¬ 
ical peculiarities: They are straight—less often, bent, or with 
obtuse angles—indented, cylindrical rods, of pale appearance, 
never branched, motionless, generally 0.007 to 0.012 millimetres 
long, and of a breadth which is hardly measurable ; besides these 
well pronounced filamentous bacteria, smaller transitory forms 
may be found, although fewer in number, 0.002, 0.003, and 0.004 
mm. long, down to the very smallest forms, which cannot be 
measured, and which, when viewed by ordinary glasses, appear 
as fine points, while with higher powers they are seen to be spher¬ 
ical bacteria, with all the optical and chemical peculiarities of 
filamentous bacteria. 
Larger bacteria, which exceed the measurements above given, 
are rarely found, and those of 0.050 mm., as described by Da- 
vaine, have been only once observed by me, and then perhaps 
they were rather to be considered as post mortem products. 
With medium and low magnifying powers the filamentous bac¬ 
teria appear without joints and homogeneous. With higher 
powers, aud by employing artificial means, causing them to swell 
by soaking in water, it is seen that the filamentous bacteria are 
formed of different members, and are, in fact, constituted by a 
juxtaposition of round or short cylindrical cells. 
The isolated spherical bacteria may also be found alone in 
the blood of anthrax. They grow continually by scission, and as 
little rows of cells united together constitute the rods (filamen¬ 
tous bacteria) which grow symmetrically at all points by scission. 
The little rods ,which in the fresh state seem homogeneous, after 
they have been swollen by water and then dried, exhibit an en¬ 
velope and a plasma. 
Anthrax bacteria are distinguished from other bacteria (bac- 
