BACILLI BETWEEN TYPHOID AND COLON ORGANISMS 429 



typhosus on the one hand, and from Bacillus coli on the other, by the 

 following simple reactions tabulated by Buxton. 1 



Characteristics of the three groups asshown by fermentation tests 

 follow: 



Pathogenically, the bacilli of this "intermediate group" have attracted 

 attention chiefly in connection with meat poisoning, and with protracted 

 fevers indistinguishable from mild typhoidal infections. 



In 1888, Gartner 3 described a bacillus which he isolated from the 

 meat of a cow, the ingestion of which had produced the symptoms of 

 acute gastrointestinal catarrh in 57 people. One of these died of the 

 disease and the bacilli could be demonstrated in the spleen and blood of 

 the patient. 



This bacillus, called Bacillus enteritidis by Gartner, was actively 

 motile, formed no indol, but produced gas in dextrose media. Acute 

 gastrointestinal symptoms could be induced by feeding the organisms 

 to mice, guinea-pigs, rabbits, and sheep, and the bacilli could be recov- 

 ered from the infected animals. An interesting observation, which 

 has since become important in characterizing the group of these bacilli 

 concerned in meat poisoning, was the fact that the bacterial bodies 

 themselves were found by Gartner to be extremely toxic, containing a 

 poison which, in contradistinction to the endotoxins of many other 

 microorganisms, was extremely resistant to heat. Sterilized cultures 

 showed the same pathogenic effects as the living bacilli. Epidemics 



1 Buxton, loc. cit. 2 Jackson. 



8 Gartner, Corresp. Bl. d. Aerzt. Vereins, Turingen, 1888. 



