CHAPTER XXXVII 



THE ANAEROBIC BACILLI (Continued) 



THE ANAEROBIC ORGANISMS ASSOCIATED WITH TRAU- 

 MATIC INJURIES, WITH A CONSIDERATION OF THEIR 

 IMPORTANCE IN WAR SURGERY, 1 ALSO BACILLUS OF 

 SYMPTOMATIC ANTHRAX 



THE anaerobic bacilli which infect wounds have been studied 

 extensively during the last war, and the literature which has ap- 

 peared on this subject since 1914, is voluminous'. Unfortunately 

 much that has been written is inaccurate, due to the fact that in 

 many instances the work was carried on in poorly equipped labora- 

 tories and under difficulties. The two most important sources of 

 confusion in this field are: the nomenclature and the impurity of 

 cultures. During the war many previously described bacilli were 

 rediscovered and given new names, and the literature is full of 

 papers claiming or disclaiming that certain organisms isolated from 

 wounds are identical with organisms described by earlier workers. 

 Even such a well-known species as B. Welchii appears in the litera- 

 ture under four names. 



It is now generally considered that in all probability most of 

 the early descriptions of anaerobic bacilli cannot be relied upon, 

 because of the extreme difficulty of isolating the anaerobes in pure 

 culture. Many investigators even during the first year of the war 

 were describing a mixture of two or more anaerobes when they 

 thought they were dealing with a pure culture. It was not until 

 the development of the newer anaerobic methods 2 which made sur- 

 face growths feasible that the purity of anaerobic cultures could 

 be relied upon. It is only by repeated plating of these anaerobic 

 spore-bearing bacilli, as emphasized repeatedly by English workers, 

 that pure cultures can be obtained. The French workers have 

 adhered for the most part to the older method of Veillon which 

 consists of making varying dilutions of the material to be examined 



1 For the thorough revision of this group of organisms we are indebted to Miss 

 Ann Kuttner, Instructor in this Laboratory, Zinsser. 



2 Macintosh and Fildes, Lancet, 1, 1916, 768, April 8th. 



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