410 J. RUSSELL ESTY 



Weinberg, who discovered a strain of gas-forming bacillus 

 isolated from cases of gas gangrene among French soldiers in 

 1916, held the view that the organisms did not cause the gangrene, 

 but that the condition preceded the infection and he has obtained 

 toxic and antioxic products for various anaerobic bacteria iso- 

 lated from gangrenous wounds. He has also prepared an anti- 

 bacterial serum with one of the Clostridium Welchii group, but 

 failed to detect either the exotoxin or its corresponding antiserum. 

 Kenneth Taylor in 1916 considered that gaseous gangrene is the 

 result of the mechanical action of the gas in a local focus of 

 developing saprophytic bacteria. His conception is that Clos- 

 tridium Welchii attacks the carbohydrates of the muscular tissue 

 and produces a large volume of gas, which, being unable to escape 

 from the tissues, exerts pressure upon the blood vessels, impeding 

 the circulation so that necrosis results. The necrotic tissue is 

 invaded by putrefactive bacteria which disorganize it. 



Wright concluded as a result of his researches that Clostridium 

 Welchii operates through the production of an acid condition of 

 the blood and tissues through which the antitrypsin is diminished 

 which permits a tryptic digestion of the proteins so that the 

 bacilli are provided with a highly favorable medium of growth. 

 The intoxication which follows is an acidemia according to his 

 views. 



Conradi and Bieling have recently distinguished two phases 

 of action of the bacilli, namely, the fermentative and the sapro- 

 phytic stages. In the fermentative phase, the carbohydrates are 

 attacked, forming lactic, butyric, proprionic and succinic acids 

 which are the immediate causes of the edema and necrosis of 

 the tissues. In the other phase, the spore-bearing organisms 

 give rise to putrefaction of the dead tissues and consequent 

 intoxication. 



Stewart West, following a study of an anaerobic bacillus iso- 

 lated from an infection in a French soldier, concluded that the 

 bacillus produced no true exotoxin nor was the bacterial protein 

 toxic and believed that acid formation in animal tissue was a 

 powerful factor in its injury. 



