890 CLOSTRIDIUM 



(See Rosenbach 1886, Behring and Kitasato 1890, Kitasato and Weyl 1890, Kitasato 

 1891, Toledo and Veillon 1891, Behring 1892, Vaillard and Rouget 1892, Uschinsky 1893, 

 Pizzini 1898, Madsen 1899, Ritchie 1901, Rosenau and Anderson 1908, von Hibler 1908, 

 Metchnikoff 1908, Smith 1908, Noble 1915, Corbitt 1918, Weinberg and Seguin 1918, 

 Report 1919, Tulloch 1919, Hall 1922, HeUer 1922a, b, Anderson 1924, Bengtson 19246, 

 Descombey 1924, Fildes 1925a, h, Weinberg and Ginsbourg 1927, Tschertkow 1929, 

 Tildes 1929, Knight and Fildes 1930, Kerrin 1930, 1934, Behn 1931, Mutermilch et al. 1933.) 



Notes on Less important Strains (see Table 57). 



CI. aerofoetidum. — Described by Weinberg and Seguin (1918). Small slender bacillus, 

 3-5 1^1 long, slightly motile, and weakly Gram-positive. Spores are subterminal, and are 

 not readily formed. Surface colonies are round and transparent ; deep colonies are small 

 and irregular. Non-pathogenic to guinea-pigs. 



CI. biferraentans. — Isolated in 1902 by Tissier and Martelly from putrefying meat, 

 and named B. bifermentans sporogenes. So caUed from its being the first anaerobe 

 shown to decompose both sugars and proteins. Probably identical with CI. centro- 

 sporogenes, described by Hall (1922), McCoy and McClung (1936) and Clark and Hall 

 (1937), and, according to Stewart (1938), with CI. sordellii (synonym B. oedematis sporo- 

 genes) isolated by SordeUi (1922, 1923) in Buenos Aires from a human case of gas gangrene 

 (see also Weinberg, Davesne and Lefranc 1931, Hall and Scott 1927). Gram-positive 

 rod, 3-6-6-0 /j, x 1-2-1-5 /n, motile by peritrichate flagella, readily forming central or 

 subterminal oval spores. Uniform turbidity in broth with filament production, and 

 viscous deposit, which is easily disintegrated on shaking ; nauseous odour. Surface 

 colonies on horse blood agar are round, crenated, or irregular, and occasionally hsemolytic ; 

 deep colonies are round or irregular and opaque with a woolly periphery. Gelatin Uquefied 

 rapidly. Coagulated serum disintegrated or Mquefied. Cooked meat medium digested, 

 blackened, with a late deposit of small rounded masses of white crystals. Ferments glucose 

 and maltose, but not lactose, saccharose, or mannitol. Forms a fibrinolysin. Pathogenic 

 strains (equivalent to CI. sordellii) produce a fairly powerful toxin which is destroyed 

 by 30° C. in 60 minutes. Both toxigenic and non-toxigenic strains produce a lecithinase, 

 specifically neutraUzed by the a-antitoxin of CI. welchii (Hayward 1943). 0-01 ml. of 

 a 48-hour glucose broth culture of a pathogenic strain injected intramuscularly kills a 

 guinea-pig in 2 days with lesions similar to those caused by CI. oedematiens. Appears 

 to be morphologically, culturally and antigenically more or less identical with CI. oedema- 

 toides, an organism isolated from a wound infection by Meleney, Humphreys and Carp 

 (1926-27, 1927). (See Humphreys and Meleney 1927-28, HaU, Rymer and Jungherr 

 1929, Hall and Scott 1931, Levenson 1936.) 



CI. capitovale. — Isolated by Snyder and Hall (1935) from various situations including 

 the pleural fluid of a sheep that had died of gas gangrene, the heart blood and jDeri- 

 toneal fluid at post mortem of cases of septic infection in human beings, and the faeces 

 of normal infants. It is a slender, motile. Gram-positive rod with rounded ends, measuring 

 2-0-2-6 /A, X 0-5-0-8 ju, and forming terminal oval spores. It gives rise on blood agar to 

 minute, circular or irregularly circular, transparent, non-hsemolytic surface colonies. It 

 produces acid and gas in glucose, but not in maltose, mannitol, lactose, sucrose, or salicin. 

 It liquefies gelatin, is mUdly proteolytic, clots milk irregularly and sometimes digests the 

 clot, is non-pathogenic to guinea-pigs and rabbits inoculated subcutaneously, and appears 

 to be antigenically homogeneous. For its differentiation from CI. paraputrificum, CI. 

 caloritolerans, and CI. cochlearium, see Snyder and Hall 1935). Serologically distinct from 

 CI. paraputrificum (Snyder 1936). 



CI. carnis. — Described by Klein (1903). A similar bacillus, pathogenic for rabbits, 

 " von Hibler vi," was isolated from soil by von Hibler (1908). HaU and Duffett (1935) 

 consider the two to be identical. Gram-positive rod, sluggishly motile by peritrichate 

 flageUa, 1-5 to 4-5 fi x O-5-0-7 ju. Readily forms subterminal elongated spores, slightly 

 wider than the bacillus, which later appear to be terminal. MicroaerophUic. Surface 



