2 7 8 



SPECIFIC MICRO-ORGANISMS 



e soil, from the feces or from 



lated by various workers froi 



putrefying material. 



Bacillus Tetani. Tetanus has 

 been recognized as a complication,.^ 

 wounds since the time of Hippocrates/, 

 Forscher, Carle and Rattone, in 1884,) 

 first proved it to be inoculable by in- 

 jecting pus from a human case into 1 2 

 rabbits, of which n died of tetanus. 

 Nicolaier in 1884 produced tetanus by 

 injecting soil into mice, guinea-pigs and 

 rabbits, and found a slender bacillus in 

 the animals at the point of inoculation. 

 He was able to propagate the bacillus 

 in mixed culture on coagulated sheep's 

 serum. Kitasato obtained the first 

 pure cultures by subjecting the mixed 

 culture to a temperature of 80 C. for 

 an hour, inoculating agar plates and 

 incubating them in an atmosphere of 

 hydrogen. With his pure cultures, he 

 caused typical tetanus in animals. 



The organism occurs in the soil 

 which has received animal fertilizers 

 and in the intestine of herbivorous 

 mammals. The bacterial cell is 0.3 to 

 0.5^1 wide and 2 to 4/4 long, single in 

 young cultures, but ,often joined end 

 to end to form long threads in older 

 cultures. It is motile and possesses 

 abundant peritrichous flagella. The 

 spore is very characteristic. It is usu- 

 ally spherical, i to 1.5 ^ in diameter, 



FIG. ii2. B. welchii in agar 



culture, showing gas formation, situated at the extremity of the cell, 

 giving it the appearance of a drumstick. The bacillus stains 

 readily and is Gram-positive, 



