GASEOUS EDEMA. 59 l 



embryos, and there multiply sufficiently to bring about 

 death later on. 



After the death of the animal, when the blood is no 

 longer oxygenated, the bacilli grow rapidly with a 

 marked gas-production, which in some cases is said to 

 have caused the bodies to swell to twice their normal 

 size. The result of injection into guinea-pigs does not 

 differ very much from that observed in rabbits. Gaseous 

 phlegmons are sometimes produced. 



Pigeons when inoculated subcutaneously in the pec- 

 toral region frequently succumb. Following the injec- 

 tion there is gas-production that causes the tissues of the 

 chest to become emphysematous. The bird generally 

 dies in from seven to twenty-four hours, but may live. 



Intraperitoneal inoculation of animals sometimes 

 causes fatal purulent peritonitis. 



The infection as seen in man generally occurs from 

 wounds into which dirt has been ground, as in the case 

 of a compound, comminuted fracture of the humerus, 

 with fatal infection, reported by Dunham, or in wounds 

 and injuries in the neighborhood of the perineum. 



Among the twenty-three cases reported by Welch and 

 Flexner 1 we find wounds of the knee, leg, hip, and fore- 

 arm, ulcer of the stomach, typhoid ulcerations of the in- 

 testine, strangulated hernia with operation, gastric and 

 duodenal ulcer, perineal section, and aneurism, as con- 

 ditions in which external or gastro-intestinal infection 

 occurred. 



Dobbin, P. Ernst, Graham Stewart and Baldwin, and 

 Kronig have met cases of puerperal sepsis and sepsis fol- 

 lowing abortion caused by the bacillus, or in which it 

 played an important role. 



The symptoms following infection are quite uniform. 

 There are usually redness and swelling of the wound, 

 with rapid elevation of temperature and rapid pulse. The 

 wound is usually more or less emphysematous, and dis- 

 charges a thin, dirty, brownish, offensive fluid which con- 



x Jour, of Exper. Med., vol. I, No. I, Jan., 1896. 



