CHAPTER II.
MALIGNANT EDEMA.

THE chief contaminating organism in the preparation
of pure cultures of the tetanus bacillus is a large slender
bacillus almost as large as that of anthrax, but with
rounded ends and an individual motility accomplished
by means of flagella attached to its ends and sides
(Fig. 130). It is a strictly anaerobic bacterium, and was

fH- f'r v

FIG. 130.—Bacillus of malignant edema, from the body-juice of a guinea-pig
inoculated with garden-earth; x 1000 (Frankel and Pfeiffer).

originally described by Pasteur (1875) as the Vibrion
septique. It grows well at the room-temperature, as well
as at the temperature of the incubator, produces oval
central spores, and, because of its association with a spe-
cific edema in certain animals, is known as the Bacillus
oedema maligni.

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