These
bacilli thrive best in fluids containing a certain amount of nutriment.
Experiments have not yet shown the limits in this respect, but Koch has
found them capable of growing in meat broth diluted ten times.
Again, if the nutrient medium become acid in reaction their growth is
checked, at least in gelatine and meat infusion; but singularly enough,
they continue to grow on the surface of a boiled potato which has become
acid, showing that all acids are not equally obnoxious to them. But here,
as with other substances which hinder their growth, they do not kill the
bacilli. Davaine has shown that iodine is a strong bactericide. He
experimented with anthrax bacilli in water to which iodine was added, and
the bacilli were destroyed. But practically the organisms have to be dealt
with in the alkaline contents of the bowel, or in the blood or fluids of
the tissues, where iodine cannot remain in the free state. Koch found that
the addition of an aqueous solution of iodine (1 in 4,000) to meat
infusion, in the proportion of 1 in 10, did not in the least interfere
with the growth of the bacilli in that medium. He did not pursue this line
of inquiry, seeing that in practice larger quantities of iodine than that
could not be given.
Pages:
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162