544 PATHOGENIC AEROBIC BACILLI 



one cubic centimetre or more of a culture in bouillon usually cause 

 the death of the animal in from twelve to thirty-six hours. An ex- 

 tensive inflammatory oedema and purulent infiltration of the tissues 

 result from subcutaneous inoculations, and a sero-fibrinous or puru- 

 lent peritonitis is induced by the introduction of the bacillus into the 

 peritoneal cavity. The bacillus is found in the serous or purulent 

 fluid in the subcutaneous tissues or abdominal cavity, and also in the 

 blood and various organs, from which it can be recovered in pure 

 cultures, although not present in great numbers, as is the case in 

 the various forms of septicaemia heretofore described. When smaller 

 amounts are injected subcutaneously the animal usually recovers 

 after the formation of a local abscess, and it is subsequently immune 

 when inoculated with doses which would be fatal to an unprotected 

 animal. Immunity may also be secured by the injection of a con- 

 siderable quantity of a sterilized culture. Bouchard has also pro- 

 duced immunity in rabbits by injecting into them the filtered urine 

 of other rabbits which had been inoculated with a virulent culture of 

 the bacillus. It has been shown by Bouchard, and by Charrin and 

 Guignard, that in rabbits which have been inoculated with a culture 

 of the anthrax bacillus a fatal result may be prevented by soon after 

 inoculating the same animals with a pure culture of the Bacillus 

 pyocyaneus. The experiments of Woodhead and Wood indicate that 

 the antidotal effect is due to chemical products of the growth of the 

 bacillus, and not to an antagonism of the living bacterial cells. They 

 were able to obtain similar results by the injection of sterilized cul- 

 tures of Bacillus pyocyaneus, made soon after infection with the 

 anthrax bacillus. 



Schimmelbusch (1894) reports that in researches made by Muh- 

 sam this bacillus was found in the axilla, the anal region, or the in- 

 guinal fold in fifty per cent of the healthy individuals examined. 

 Its presence in wounds greatly delays the process of repair and may 

 give rise to a general depression of the vital powers from the ab- 

 sorption of its toxic products. Schimmelbush states that a physician 

 injected 0.5 cubic centimetre of sterilized (by heat) culture into his 

 forearm. That as a result of this injection, after a few hours he had 

 a slight chill, followed by fever, which at the end of twelve hours 

 reached 38.8 ; an erysipelatous - like swelling of the forearm oc- 

 curred, and the glands in the axilla were swollen and painful. Re- 

 covery occurred without the formation of an abscess. Buchner has 

 related a similar case. 



Krannhals (1894) refers to seven cases in which a general pyocy- 

 aneus infection in man was found, and adds an eighth from his own 

 experience. In this the Bacillus pyocyaneus was obtained, post mor- 



