22 HILDA HEMPL HELLER 



Gentjs 14. Meyerillus nov. gen. 



Clostridioideae that produce HaS on blood broth and liquefy 

 gelatin. In meat medium they produce gas but little or no pink 

 coloration; they show no marked proteolytic action. Do not 

 readily attack milk. Large Gram-positive rods with little or 

 no inclination to form spores. Attack a few sugars. Colonies 

 in deep agar large, opaque and lenticular. Typically tissue 

 invaders of marked power, attacking and digesting in vivo the 

 connective tissue more than the muscle. 



Type species M. sadowa nov. sp. To be described in a future 

 paper. This organism was at first taken for B. Welchii. It 

 does not sporulate. It is one of the four guinea-pig invaders 

 isolated from a case of human gas gangrene. I am inclined to 

 place the sporulating bacillus L of Adamson (1919) in this genus 

 but have not handled that organism. Perhaps it is premature 

 to decide whether sporulation may be used as a generic character. 

 Adamson finds bacillus L very slightly proteolytic on milk and 

 not so on other media. M. sadowa does not grow on milk. 



Genus 15. Novillus nov. gen. 



Clostridioideae that in blood broth produce H2S demonstrable 

 by lead-acetate-paper test; they liquefy gelatin. Produce gas 

 and on continued incubation produce a pink coloration in meat, 

 but this color rapidly fades. Autoagglutinate with extreme 

 readiness. Slowly attack milk and a few carbohydrates, but do 

 not form much acid. Heavy rods of apparently shy growth habit 

 on most media; form a few oval spores that may or may not 

 bulge the sides of the baciUi. Colonies usually large and opaque, 

 may form slender projections or even long fine woolly filaments. 

 Frequently yellowish. Typically toxic tissue invaders which 

 frequently cause the formation of a thick gelatinous oedema 

 that does not lose its gelatinous consistency on section. ]May 

 also produce gas and a black haemorrhagic condition of the 

 muscle if rapid invasion by large numbers of bacilli takes place. 

 One strain causes considerable tissue destruction. Pathogenic 

 for guinea-pigs, mice, man, hogs, horses, cattle. 



Type species A'', maligni {Bacillus oedematis-maligni II, Novy) 

 as described by Novy. 



