Micro-organisms : with special reference to the etiology of the infective diseases / by C. Flügge ; translated from the 2nd and thoroughly revised ed. of "Fermente und Mikroparasiten" by W. Watson Cheyne.

  • Carl Flügge
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Micro-organisms : with special reference to the etiology of the infective diseases / by C. Flügge ; translated from the 2nd and thoroughly revised ed. of "Fermente und Mikroparasiten" by W. Watson Cheyne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    with anthrax—it is evident that health}^ animals do not easily become affected, even when they live in close contact with the diseased ones. On the other hand, in intestinal anthrax (luantitics of dejecta containing anthrax spores arc poiired out on the meadows from whicli healthy animals obtain their food, and thus it is easy to understand liow the disease spreads by the S])ores which are preserved in the grass. In like manner in burying the bodies of animals which have died of anthrax, and which have been opened, blood, &c., may be left on the surface of the soil, and spores subsequently form there and ultimately get into the fodder.—While, how- ever, in this mode of spread the pathogenic agents are as a rule ultimately killed or interfered with by some meteoro- logical influence, it is probable that there are some natural abodes of the anthrax bacilli where they multiply outside the body and constantly form new spores, these abodes being therefore dangeroi;s and permanent reservoirs; situations of this kind are present in the neighbourhood of rivers and marshes, where sufficient moisture, favourable temperature, and a plentiful siipply of dead vegetable substances are present, and thus in exceptional cases a saprophytic growth of anthrax bacilli can take place. From these situations the spores may be transported to meadows by means of floods, and there give rise for a series of years to outbreaks of disease, although the multiplication of the infective agents may be limited to the body of the diseased animal.—In the case of man, as is well known, infection with anthi'ax occurs almost exclusively by means of the bacilli and spores developed in the diseased animal, and adhering to the skin, hairs, &c., and the fact that the formation of the spores occur for the most part after the death of the animal does not in any way detract from the contagious character of this mode of spread. Various other, infective agents mfiy show a certain Parasites amount of saprophytic growth, which, however, is of less ^j|^iy^a%Jt importance as regards their spread than in the case of saprophytic typhoid fever, cholera, and anthrax. The staphylococci arc very widely distributed ; hut it is relatively unimpor- tant whether their number increases only as the result of constant reproduction in pus, or also as the result of saprophytic growth. The streptococci, erysipelas cocci, &c., are able to multiply on dead nutrient substrata under favourable conditions; but the usual mode of spread to healthy individuals is nevertheless either in the fresh state by contact, instruments, &c., or in tho