518 BACILLI WHICH PRODUCE SEPTICAEMIA 



nies appear as spherical, grayish-brown discs, the surface of which is marked 

 with dark points or lines. The superficial colonies are more transparent, 

 have irregular outlines, and the surface, especially near the margins, is 

 coarsely granular. The development in stab cultures is very rapid and re- 

 sembles that of Friedlander's bacillus ' ' nail-shaped " growth. Upon potato 

 the growth is also similar to that of Friedlander's bacillus, and consists of a 

 thick, grayish- white, moist, and shining layer. 



Pathogenesis. Mice inoculated with a small quantity of a pure culture 

 die from acute septicaemia in about forty-ei^ht hours. The bacilli are found 

 in blood from the heart and from the various organs most numerous in 

 the liver. Eabbits are killed within forty eight hours by intravenous injec- 

 tion of a small quantity, and the blood contains the bacillus in great num- 

 bers. Larger amounts injected into the circulation of rabbits or dogs cause 

 death in a few hours (three to ten), preceded by diarrhoea, and in some in- 

 stances bloody discharges from the bowels. At the autopsy an acute gastro- 

 enteritis is found. 



BACILLUS PYOGENES FCETIDUS. 



Obtained by Passet (1885) from an abscess of the anus. 



Morphology. Short bacilli with rounded ends, 1.45 n long and 0.58 /u 

 broad ; usually associated in pairs or in short chains. 



Biological Characters. An aerobic, non-liquefying, motile bacillus. 

 Grows rapidly in the usual culture media at the room temperature. In the 

 interior of the rods, in stained preparations, one or two unstained, spherical 

 places may sometimes be seen, which have been supposed to be spores (?). 

 The independent motion exhibited by this bacillus is not very active. In 

 gelatin plates white colonies are developed at the end of twenty-four hours, 

 which upon the surface spread out as grayish-white plaques, having a dia- 

 meter sometimes of one centimetre ; these are thickest in the centre and of 

 a whitish color ; the colonies may become confluent. In gelatin stab cul- 

 tures the growth upon the surface, at the end of twenty-four hours, consists 

 of a thin, grayish white layer with rather thick, irregular margins ; along the 

 line of puncture more or less crowded colonies. Upon potato ih& bacillus 

 forms an abundant, shining, pale-brown layer. The cultures give off a dis- 

 agreeable putrefactive odor. 



According to Eisenberg, mice and guinea-pigs are killed in twenty-four 

 hours by injections beneath the skin or into the cavity of the abdomen, and 

 numerous bacilli are found in the blood. 



PROTEUS HOMINIS CAPSULATUS. 



Obtained by Bordoni-Uffreduzzi (1887) from two cadavers presenting the 

 pathological appearances of the so-called " Haderiikrankheit. " 



Morphology. Bacilli, varying considerably in dimensions; somewhat 

 thicker than the anthrax bacillus; often swollen in the middle or at the ex- 

 tremities; more or less curved; isolated, united in pairs or in long filaments; 

 in stained preparations from agar cultures or from blood the bacilli are sur- 

 rounded by a "capsule." 



Stains with the usual aniline colors and also by Gram's method. 



Biological Characters. An aerobic (facultative anaerobic ?), non-lique- 

 fying, non motile bacillus. Formation of spores not observed. Grows in 

 the usual culture media at the room temperature. At a temperature of 15 to 

 17 D C. long filaments are formed, in which the bacilli are surrounded with a 

 capswle ; at 22 to 24 C. the bacilli are for the most part isolated, but few fila- 

 ments being formed ; at 32 to 37 C. the bacilli are so short as to resemble 

 micrococci ; development ceases at a temperature of 8 and is very slow at 

 15 C. 



