Pathogenic Bacteria

434 PA THOGENIC BACTERIA.

a bluish fint, and resemble ,glass-wool when slightly
magnified; Yersin's bacillus forms white, transparent col-
onies with iridescent edges. Ogata, in the investigation

FIG. 122.—Bacilli of plague and phagocytes; x 800.« From human lymphatic

gland (Aoyama).

of the cases that came into his hands found a bacillus
that resembles that of Yersin, but not that of Kitasato.

The bubonic plague is an extremely fatal infectious
disease, whose ravages in the hospital in which Yersin
made his observations carried off 95 per cent, of the
cases. It affects both men and animals, and is character-
ized by sudden onset, high fever, prostration, delirium,
and the occurrence of lymphatic swellings—buboes—
affecting chiefly the inguinal glands, though not infre-
quently the axillary, and sometimes the cervical, glands.
Death comes on in severe cases in forty-eight hours. If
the case is of longer duration, the prognosis is said to be
better. Autopsy in fatal cases reveals the characteristic
enlargement of the lymphatic glands, whose contents are
soft and sometimes purulent.

Wyssokowitz and Zabolotiny1 describe two forms of
the disease:

1 Ann. de V Inst. Pasteur, Aug. 25, 1897, xi., 8, p. 665.