IVAN C. HALL 199 



blackleg) in cattle which they distinguished from anthrax.' Discoveries of other pathogenic 

 anaerobes have continued from that day until the present, and probably will continue for 

 many years, for this field is still a fertile one. No obligately anaerobic plant pathogens have 

 been discovered, however. 



The best-known obligate anaerobes are found among the sporulating bacilli, whose 

 properties and activities have been summarized by von Hibler,^ by Jungano and Dis- 

 taso,^ and more recently by various French,'' English, ^ Italian,^ and American^ investi- 

 gators. The frequent occurrence of gaseous gangrene during the war, due to the close 

 contact of the soldiers with fertilized (infected) soil, and the extensive uses of high 

 explosives which carried soil particles into deep wounds, served greatly to arouse new 

 interest in wound infections due to the sporulating anaerobes. During the war also, 

 botulism became a conspicuous problem in the United States, possibly due, in part, 

 to an unusual increase in the volume of crude home-canning, although the first cases 

 of botulism were recognized before the war and there is good clinical evidence that 

 botulism has occurred in the United States as in European countries for many years* 

 and a few of the outbreaks were due to commercially canned rather than home-canned 

 products.^ Important obligate anaerobes occur also among the cocci,'" the actino- 

 myces," the strep tothrices," and the spirochaetes.'^ 



What degree of oxygen-tension reduction can be tolerated by higher animals and 

 plants is a problem only recently solved and one which has important practical bear- 

 ings in the case of man, in connection with aviation. '^^ Bunge'^ pointed out that various 



' Pasteur, L., and Joubert: Bull. Acad, de med., Paris, 6, 781. 1877. 



^ von Hibler, E.: Untersiichimgen iiber path. Anaeroben. 1908. 



3 Jungano and Distaso: Les Anaerobies. Paris: Masson, 1910. 



■'Weinberg, M., and Seguin, P.: La Gangrene gazeiise. Paris: Masson, 1917. 



5 Adamson, R. S.: /. Path. 6° Bad., 22, 345. 1919; Medical Research Committee: Reports on 

 the Anaerobic Infections of Wounds and the Bacteriological and Serological Problems Arising Therefrom. 

 1919. 



^Desderi, P.: Infezione da germi anaerobi per feritd in guerra. Torino, 1919; Fasiani, G. M.: 

 Bolletino delV Institute Sieroterapico Milanese, No. 3. Oct., 1921. 



' Simonds, J. F.: Monograph of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, No. 5. 1915; Heller, 

 H.: J. Infect. Dis., 27, 385. 1920; J. Bact., 6, 445, 521. 1921; Kahn, M. C: /. Med. Research, 43, 

 155. 1922; J. Infect. Dis., 35, 423. 1924; Kendall, A. I., Day, A. A., and Walker, A. W.: ibid., 30, 

 141. 1922; Hall, I. C: ibid., p. 445. 1922. 



^ Dickson, E. C: Monograph of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, No. 8. 1918. 



' Dubovsky, B. J., and Meyer, K. F.: /. Infect. Dis., 31, 501. 1922; (see also numerous papers 

 by Meyer and collaborators in succeeding numbers of J. Infect. Dis.); Geiger, J. C, Dickson, E.G., 

 and Meyer, K. F.: Pub. Health Bull. 12'j. 1922. 



'"Hall, I. C., and Howitt, B.: /. Infect. Dis., 37, 112. 1925; Prevot, A. R.: Ann. deVInst. 

 Pasteur, 3g,4ij. 1925; Schwartz, O. H., and Dieckmann, W.J. : Am. J. Obsi. b'Gynec., 13, 467. 1927. 



" Lieske, R.: Morphologie und Biologie der Strahlenpilze (Actinomyoetes). Leipzig: Borntraeger 

 Bros., 1921; Naeslund, C.: Acta path, el microbiol. Scandinav., 2, no. 1925. 



'^ Plant, R.: Centralbl.f. Bakteriol., Abt. I, Orig., 84, 440. 1920. 



'^ Noguchi, H.: J. Exper. Med., 14, gg. 1911; 15, 81 and 466. i9i2;27, 667. 1918; 28,559.1918. 



'^ Schneider, E. C.: Am. J. Physiol. ,34, i and 29. i9i4;36,38o. 1915; also editorialin /./l.Af .^., 

 88, 1805. 1927. 



'sBunge, G.: Ztschr.f. phys. Chemie, 8, 48. 18S3; 12, 565. 1888; 14, 31S. 1890. 



