276 Transactions of the Society. 



B. perfringens, although in the gas-infiltrated area the cells are all 

 destroyed. The normal process of bacterial destruction is carried 

 out by the polymorphonuclear cells, and figs. 12 and 13, PL XX, 

 made from the pus of a healing wound, show this process in action. 

 Fig. 12 shows the various streptococci and other organisms in the 

 interior of phagocytes, and fig. 13 actually shows the phagocized 

 organisms partially digested. These two photographs were difficult 

 ones to make ; the films were stained with Pappenheim's panoptic 

 stain, nevertheless the organisms as well as the cells are clearly 

 seen, even the partially digested ones. 



Figs. 14 and 15, PL XXI, are types of bacilli isolated from 

 certain types of cases, and which so far are unidentified, as 

 anaerobes are extremely difficult to differentiate owing to their 

 curious method of growth; one of these organisms is probably 

 Pasteur's Vihrion septique. 



B. tetani is often found in septic wounds even when no 

 symptoms of lockjaw appear; that clinical symptoms do not 

 develop in such cases is no doubt due to the universal adminis- 

 tration of antitetanus serum to every wounded man at the earliest 

 possible moment after injury. Fig. 16, PL XXI, is a somewhat 

 aberrant form of B. tetani obtained from one of the most acute 

 cases of fatal tetanus I have met with ; the cultures of the organism 

 shown are highly toxic, in fact this particular culture is now used 

 for the production of tetanus antitoxin. 



The next series of slides illustrate the great advantage of 

 photographic records in bacteriological research in maintaining 

 visual records of variations in morphology of the different species 

 of bacteria. Stained microscopical preparations are notoriously 

 lialile to fade, whereas a negative once obtained is a permanent 

 record. 



The anaerobic organisms here illustrated are divisible into 

 three groups, having general biological peculiarities — 



1. B. oidemaiis maligni, an energetic protein digester. 



2. B. perfringens {B. tvelchii, or B. /vrogenes capsulatus), which 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXI. 



Fig. 14. — Bacilli with clostridial spores oval and flattened ; isolated from acute 

 gas gangrene. Stained Gram, x 1000. 



,, 15. — B. perfringens type, with long threads ; isolated from acute gas 

 gangrene. Stained Gram, x 1000. 



,, 16. — Pure culture of B. tetani; agar, forty-eight hours. Atypical form and 

 absence of typical " drumsticks." Stained Gram, x 1000. 



,, 17. — B. cedematis ynaligtii, subterminal end-spores with long thread forma- 

 tion ; agar, forty-eight hours. Stained Gram, x 1000. 



,, 18. — Ditto. Oval and subterminal end-spores ; egg-agar, forty-eight hours. 

 Stained Gram, x 1000. 



,, 19. — B. Hibler IX, oval terminal end-spores; egg-agar, forty-eight hours. 

 Stained Gram. X 1000. 



