756 PATHOGENIC MICROORGANISMS 



bubbles will be found distributed throughout the organs, especially 

 in the liver. B. Welchii if present, can usually be isolated from 

 the liver and the heart's blood. Cultures can also be identified by 

 injecting them intramuscularly into two guinea-pigs, one normal, 

 the other protected by a dose of B. Welchii antitoxin. If both 

 pigs die, and an anaerobic organism is isolated from the heart's 

 blood, it indicates the presence of some other pathogenic anaerobe, 

 not B. Welchii. If the normal pig dies with an anaerobic, capsulated, 

 non-motile Gram-positive bacillus in the heart's blood, and the anti- 

 toxin pig survives, it is a fairly sure indication that the organism 

 in question is B. Welchii. 



VIBRION SEPTIQUE (Synonyms, Bacillus of Oh on and Sachs, and 

 Bacillus III of Von Hibler). Vibrion septique according to Wein- 

 berg and Seguin, occurred in 12 per cent of the wounds examined 

 by them. Henry isolated it in 16 per cent of his cases. Before the 

 war, cases of human gas gangrene due to vibrion septique alone 

 were very few in number. Such cases were described by Ghon 

 and Sachs, 17 by Von Hibler, Gould, 18 and by Muir and Ritchie. 19 

 During the war, vibrion septique was usually associated with other 

 anaerobes, notably B. Welchii. Weinberg and Seguin cite only one 

 case of gas gangrene in which vibrion septique was the only anaerobe 

 present. 



Vibrion septique was first described by Pasteur 20 in 1877 who 

 isolated it from the blood of a cow dead three days, and from the 

 blood of a horse dead one day, both animals having supposedly died 

 of anthrax. Pasteur called this organism a vibrion, although it is 

 in reality a bacillus, because it is extremely motile in animal exudates 

 and may look slightly curved when in motion. In 1881, Koch 21 in 

 studying the etiology of anthrax, isolated an organism which he 

 called the bacillus of malignant edema. Koch considered his 

 organism identical with Pasteur's vibrion septique, although the 

 bacillus of malignant edema had marked proteolytic properties, 

 which Pasteur did not mention in the description of vibrion septique. 

 A great amount of confusion has arisen out of this controversy 

 and the literature is full of papers discussing whether or not Pasteur 



17 Ghon and Sachs, Cent, f . Bakt., 1 Abt. Orig., 48, 1909, 396. 



18 Gould., Annals of Surgery, 38, 1903, 481. 



19 Muir and Ritchie, Manual of Bacteriology, 2d Edit., Edinburgh, 1899. 



20 Pasteur et Jourbet, Bull, de 1'Acad. Med., Scien., Vol. 6, 793. 



21 Koch, Mitt. a. d. k. Gesundheitsamt,, 1, 1881, 53*. 



