Scientific Memoirs by
2
During the course of 1886 an epidemic prevailed among horses, ponies, and
mules in Meerut which, according to Veterinary-Surgeon W. D. Gunn, A.V.D.,
was not of an anthracoid but of a typhoid nature, the symptoms during life
differing slightly from those of anthrax in various respects, amongst others in
the fever being of a relapsing in place of a continued character. The post-
mortem appearances were described as " very similar to those of anthrax," with
the exception that there were ulcerations in Peyer's patches. Dr. Gunn culti-
vated a drop of blood in gelatinised chicken broth and obtained no Bacillus
anthracis, but a crop of minute Bacilli and numerous small micrococcoid bodies
which he believed to be spores. He does not appear to have observed the pre-
sence of any spirilloid organisms in the blood.
A difference in opinion prevailed among the veterinary authorities as to the
nature of the disease, some agreeing with Dr. Gunn as to the specific distinct
-ness of the disease, others holding that " both in its course and post-mortem
results it resembled ordinary anthrax." Specimens of blood obtained from
diseased animals were forwarded to Dr. Barclay for examination with a view to
aiding a decision of the question, and some of these were sent on by him to
me. The first samples which reached me consisted of two capillary tubes con-
taining blood and closed at either end with common sealing-wax. The tubes
were first carefully washed with a solution of corrosive sublimate and with
spirit, and were then allowed to dry. The tip of one of them was broken off by
means of a freshly-heated pair of forceps and the minute clot and serum intro-
duced into a little freshly-sterilised salt solution of a strength of o.75per cent.
A portion of the clot was used for preparations and the rest of it was broken up
in the solution and used to inoculate a plate-culture of agar-agar peptonised
meat-juice. The contents of the second tube were used for preparations. The
preparations showed the presence of a few small straight Bacilli and Micrococci,
and, in one instance, numerous large spirilloid bodies at a particular part of the
clot. The cultivation yielded a few colonies of straight Bacilli of considerable
size and innumerable colonies of micrococcus luteus. Subcutaneous injection
of a solution full of the straight Bacilli into the bodies of guinea-pigs produced
no appreciable result.
The second set of samples consisted of four of the common microscopical
glass slides with a central hollow on one surface. The hollows contained blood
and were covered by cover-glasses. The contents were used for plate-cultures
and preparations. In one specimen the clot was full of small straight. Bacilli, in
the others the characters agreed generally with those of the previous samples,
but in none of them could any spirilloid bodies be detected. The results of
cultivations were smilar to those of the cultivation from the first sample, and
in no case was there any evidence of the presence of Bacillus anthracis.
The spirilloid organisms in one of the first set of preparations presented the
following characters. They were present in large numbers in the thin stratum