TOXINS OF BACT. DYSENTERIAE, GROUP III 



TH. THJ0TTA and ODD FALSEN SUNDT 



From the Bacteriological Laboratory of the Norwegian Medical Corps, Kristiania, 



Norway 



Received for publication, February 10, 1921 



It was Shiga (1898) who first demonstrated the toxicity of 

 cultures of the dysentery bacillus isolated by him in 1898. Later 

 this toxin production has been studied by several investigators 

 among whom are Neisser and Shiga (1903), Conradi (1903), 

 Vaillard and Dopter (1903), Flexner and Sweet (1906) and Kraus 

 and Doerr (1905). Recently Olitsky and Kligler (1920) have 

 published a very interesting" paper on this subject, showing 

 that the dysentery bacillus of group I of Thj0tta's (1919) classi- 

 fication (the bacillus of Shiga) produces a soluble toxin (exotoxin) 

 as well as an endotoxin, and that these two toxins act differently 

 in rabbits. The former was shown to be a neurotoxin having 

 no intestinal action, while the latter is an enterotoxin having no 

 effect on the nervous system. 



In the past the dysentery bacilli of group I were considered 

 the only toxic forms of this bacillus, while those of the other 

 groups (group II of Thj0tta's classification, i.e., the types of 

 Flexner and Strong and the Hiss Y bacillus) were held to be atoxic. 



In the following we will show that Bad. dysenteriae of group 

 III as well as of group I produces toxins thus showing the relation 

 of this group to the toxic strains of the Bad. dysenteriae. 



Before going into the details of our experiments we will pre- 

 sent the main characters of the bacillus of group III. It is, 

 as in the case of other Bad. dysenteriae a Gram negative,^ non- 

 motile non-gas producing microbe, that forms acid in mannitol, 

 maltose, glucose, and as a rule in sucrose. It does not produce 

 indol and it grows in peculiar colonies having an irregular, 

 crenated edge. It is toxic to a milder degree for rabbits and 

 monkeys (Sonne). 



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