362 THE COL/ CLOACA PROTEUS GROUP 



readily in necrotic tissues, forming much pus which has a foetid odor. 

 Middle ear infections, characterized by very foul-smelling pus, have 

 been reported. 



Bacillus proteus fluorescens, an organism exhibiting many charac- 

 teristics of the proteus group, has been isolated from several cases of 

 Weil's disease (infectious jaundice) by Jaeger, 1 Conradi and Vogt, 2 

 and Bruning. 3 Bar and Renon 4 isolated a similar bacillus from a case 

 of jaundice in the newborn. Booker 5 has isolated B. proteus from 

 the feces of a large number of cases of acute summer diarrhea in 

 children. It would appear from his studies that the organisms played 

 a prominent part in the causation of certain types of this illness, par- 

 ticularly those characterized by choleraic symptoms. 



Bacillus proteus is not very pathogenic for laboratory animals. 

 The injection of large doses usually causes death. 



Bacteriological Diagnosis. Bacillus proteus is readily isolated upon 

 gelatin plates: the bacilli grow rapidly at room temperature and 

 liquefy the medium around each individual colony. Subcultures in 

 sugar media, gelatin and milk produce the changes outlined above. 

 B. proteus mav be confused with B. cloacae, because the latter organ- 

 ism ferments lactose more slowly than other sugars. 6 B. cloacae, how- 

 ever, is distinctly less proteolytic than B. proteus, 7 and it produces 

 less acid and more gas from dextrose. 



1 Zeit. f. Hyg., 1892, xii. 2 Ibid., 1901, xxxvii, 283. 



3 Deut. med. Woch., 1904, 1269. 4 Sem. med., 1895, 234. 



5 Johns Hopkins Hospital Reports, vi. 



6 Theobald Smith, Fermentation Tube, 1893, 215. 



7 Kendall, Day and Walker, loc. cit., 1230. 



