750 PATHOGENIC MICROORGANISMS 



in deep agar shake tubes until isolated colonies are obtained. The 

 tube is then filed through at the level of 1lie colony and the isolated 

 colony can be fished. This is a laborious method and is unreliable. 

 Barber 3 has developed a technique whereby he can isolate a single 

 bacillus and has applied this method to the problem of the purifica- 

 tion of the anaerobic bacilli. 



The source of anaerobic bacilli in war wounds can always be 

 traced to the contamination of the wound either directly or in- 

 directly with fecally contaminated soil. Most of the anaerobic 

 bacilli have been shown to be normal inhabitants of the intestinal 

 tract of man or animals, and are present in great numbers in 

 cultivated ground. During the war the incidence of anaerobic 

 bacilli in wounds and their relation to the development of gas 

 gangrene was studied in detail. 



In civilian practice gas gangrene is generally attributed to the 

 presence of B. Welchii. In war wounds, however, it was found 

 that although B. Welchii was isolated from the majority of the 

 cases of gas gangrene, it practically never occurred in pure culture, 

 and was usually associated, besides aerobes, with other anaerobic 

 bacilli which in many instances proved to be more pathogenic than 

 B. Welchii. The separation and identification of these anaerobic 

 bacilli, and the development of methods for the control of such 

 infections were among the most important problems of bacteriologists 

 during the war. 



In this book only the most important and frequently occurring 

 anaerobic bacilli will be discussed. The reader is referred for more 

 detailed description to the book of Weinberg and Seguin "La 

 Gangrene Gazeuse," and to the Report of the British Medical 

 Research Committee. The anaerobic bacilli found in war wounds 

 can be divided into two general groups, as first suggested by Von 

 Hibler 4 in his book on Anaerobes, published in 1908 : the sacchrolytic 

 and the proteolytic. 



The saccharolytic group includes as its most important members : 

 B. Welchii 

 Vibrion Septique 

 B. Oedematiens 

 B. Fallax 



3 Barber, Jour. Exper. Med., 32, 1920, 295. 



4 Von Hibler, " Untersuchungen iiber die pathog. anserob.," Jena, 1908. 



