

CLOSTRIDIUM SEPTIGUM 885 



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Fig. 203. — CI. septicum. Fig. 204. — Clostridium septicum. 



From a surface agar culture anaerobically, Surface colony on agar anaerobi- 



2 days, 37° C. ( X 1000). cally, 2 days, 37° C. ( X 8). 



Agar Slope. — 4 days at 37° C. Scanty to moderate, effuse, translucent, glistening, greyish- 

 yellow growth, forming little islands, each with a coarsely erose edge ; surface 

 smooth or very finely granular. 



Gelatin. — 7 days at 37° C. Liquefied. 



Broth. — 4 days at 37° C. Poor to moderate growth with slight turbidity and a moderate, 

 powdery deposit disintegrating completely ; slight rancid odour. 



Loeffler's Serum. — 15 days at 37° C. Fairly good confluent growth ; no liquefaction. 



Coagnlated Egg. — 15 days at 37° C. Fairly good, partly confluent growth, with a moder- 

 ately granular surface ; no digestion. 



Cooked Meat Medium. — 15 days at 37° C. Moderate growth with slight turbidity ; gas 

 production ; meat turned pink ; no digestion ; rancid odour. 



Resistance. — Not recorded. 



Metabolic. — Strict anaerobe. Opt. temp. 37° C. a-prirae, and later ^-haemolysis on 

 horse blood agar plates. Haemolyses human and sheep's red cells. Nutritional : 

 grows fairly well on ordinary media ; growth improved by glucose. Green fluores- 

 cent colonies on MacConkey plate. Toxin produced. Forms a fibrinolysin. 



Biochemical. — Acid and gas in glucose, maltose, lactose and salicin, not in mannitol or 

 sucrose. Indole — ; M.R. — ; V.P. — ; nitrates reduced ; NH3 slight -[- ; H2S -|- ; 

 M.B. reduction — ; catalase — . Litmus milk : acid and clot and some gas ; the 

 clot does not form for 3 to 6 days. 



Antigenic Structure. — By agglutination four groups can be distinguished on basis of O 

 antigen ; further subdivision is possible on basis of H antigen. Some cross-agglu- 

 tination and much cross-complement-fixation with CI. cJuiuvoei strains. Antitoxin 

 appears to be specific. 



Pathogenicity. — Exotoxin produced. One agent in production of gas gangrene in man. 

 Causes blackleg and braxy in sheep, and sometimes blackleg in cattle. Experi- 

 mentally, it is pathogenic to guinea-pigs, mice, rabbits, and pigeons. Patho- 

 genicity is retained for years in subculture. 0-01-0-5 ml. of a 24-hour glucose 

 broth culture injected intramuscularly into guinea-pigs causes death in 12 to 24 

 hours. P.M. blood-stained oedema and gas production ; muscles intense deep red 

 in colour and softened ; sometimes fluid in peritoneum and pericardium. Motile 

 rods and navicular forms at site of injection, and long, jointed, snake-like fila- 

 ments on peritoneal surface of liver. (See p. 871.) 



