NOTES ON THE FUSIFORM BACILLI OF VINCENT'S 



ANGINA 



S. R. GIFFORD 



Omaha, Nebraska 

 Received for publication January 13, 1919 



There is still some difference of opinion expressed in standard 

 texts as to the Gram-staining qualities of the fusiform bacilli found 

 in Vincent's angina and allied conditions. In Hiss and Zinsser 

 it is stated: " Stained by Gram, they are usually decolorized, 

 though in this respect the writers have found them to vary." 

 Stitt calls this bacillus Gram-negative but states that it "is 

 not markedly Gram-negative." No attempt will be made to 

 review completely the literature on this point, but a few state- 

 ments may be quoted to show that there is such disagreement. 



A good summing up of the literature is that of Beitzke (1904) 

 and many of the opinions quoted here are from this article, as 

 well as from those of Weaver and Tunnicliff (1905, 1907) and of 

 Babes (1906). 



Weaver and Tunnicliff, from a large variety of material, found 

 the bacilli to be Gram-negative, though they state that, unless 

 thoroughly decolorized by alcohol, the cells retain a very faint 

 bluish color. They mention (1905) that others have found longer 

 decolorization to be necessary; that Vincent, Abel, and Niclotte 

 and Marotte found the bacilli Gram-positive, but that all other 

 authors contradict this. Vincent in his original article on Hos- 

 pital Gangrene (1896) describes the bacilli as Gram-negative. 

 In a later article (1899) on the anginas, he also describes them 

 as Gram-negative (p. 613) and I can find no reference to them as 

 Gram-positive, such as Weaver and Tunnicliff (1905) (p. 449) 

 cite. Babes (1906) found fusiform bacilli from the gums in scurvy 

 Gram-negative and states that Bernheim and Pospichill, in 30 

 cases of angina and other conditions found them Gram-negative. 



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