CLOSTIUIMT-M IHTHIFICrM (B. PUTRIFICUS BIEN- 

 STOCKj, A DISTINCT SPECIES 



GEOHGE V. REDDISH and LEO V. KETTGEK 

 From Ihe Sheffield Laboralonj of Bncleriology, Yale University 



Received <«v puMicMlioii Fcl>ru;iry 3, 1922 



There lias been luiuli coiilusiini re^anliiif;; the identity of the 

 organism w hicli w as discovered by liienstock (1884) and which he 

 named Ji<icillus pKtriJicKs. Accordinu; to his own admission, 

 Bienstofk for a while worked with impure cuHures of this an- 

 aerobe. However, he described its inorjihology and putrefactive 

 properties, in his first publication (1884), and at a later date 

 published a more complete description (1899). 



l^icnstock described his B. putrijicus as a long, slender rod 

 with a lerminal spore. His photographs show both round and 

 more or less oval spores. Some investigators have interpreted his 

 phrase '"baguette de tambour" and the word " Trouunclschlag- 

 enform" as meaning literally dnnnsttck and implying an oval 

 fdiin of the spore. This inter))retation does not appear to the 

 writiM-s to l)e correct. In its sjioruhiting stage Clostridium tetaivi 

 is described ([uite generally in the literature as a drumstick form, 

 and this term is generally applied to organisms possessing a 

 round, terminal spore. Tissier and ]VIartelly (1902) hken the 

 spore of C. putrifmnn to that of C. telani. Rettger (1906) 

 also points out a strong resemblance, and further draws atten- 

 tion to the ease with which C piitrijiruni may, by morphology 

 alon(% be mistaken for the tetanus bacillus. However, certain 

 writers have in recent years referred to C. putrijicum as pro- 

 ducing a terminal oval spore. Even so late a work as that of 

 the British Medical Research Committee (1917) has included 

 this organism among the putrefactive anaerobes which develop 

 such spores. Some American writers have fallen into the same 

 error. Sturges and Rettger (1919), on the other hand, state 

 emphatically as the result of a continued study of several pure 



.50.") 



