THE ANAEROBIC BACILLI 757 



and Koch were working with the same organisms and with attempts 

 to identify organisms isolated from wounds with one or the other 

 of these bacilli. The majority of workers now consider that Pasteur 

 was working with a strictly saccharolytic organism which is identical 

 with what we call vibrion septique at the present time. The bacillus 

 of malignant edema of Koch is thought by most investigators to 

 belong to the proteolytic group and is fairly definitely identified with 

 B. sporo genes. 



Vibrion septique is a motile, slender Gram-positive bacillus with 

 slightly rounded ends. It is a strict anaerobe. It forms spores 

 readily in most media. The spore is oval, occurring either centrally 

 or subterminally, and appears at the end of twenty-four to forty- 

 eight hours. It has no capsule. It ferments the common sugars 

 with the exception of saccharose. It produces a loose clot in milk 

 in one to four days. Gelatin is liquefied, but coagulated serum is 

 not attacked. Vibrion septique is hemolytic. It is always pathogenic 

 for laboratory animals and guinea-pigs, mice, pigeons and rabbits 

 are all susceptible. It invades the blood stream producing a sep- 

 ticemia. The occurrence of long filamentous forms in the livers of 

 guinea-pigs dying of a vibrion septique infection is characteristic 

 and is used in the identification of vibrion septique. 



Robertson 22 has recently divided the vibrion septique group into 

 four serological types, based upon the agglutination reaction. Miss 

 Robertson again stresses the necessity of minute care in purifying 

 cultures and points out that impure cultures fail to agglutinate. 

 It is difficult, however, to attach much importance to variations in 

 agglutinin production of different strains, since there is no differ- 

 ence in toxin production, and since the antitoxin produced by the 

 injection of the toxin of strains belonging to one serological type 

 neutralizes the toxins produced by members of the other types. 

 The agglutination reaction in the case of vibrion septique subdivides 

 strains that agree in every other respect, and may in this instance 

 be regarded as ultraspecific, as Miss Robertson suggests. She was 

 able to obtain agglutinating sera with a titer of 1-25,000. 



TOXIN PRODUCTION. A powerful soluble toxin is produced by all 

 strains of vibrion septique and does not depend on the virulence 

 of the culture. According to Robertson as potent toxins are 

 produced by old laboratory strains of vibrion septique as by recently 



22 Robertson, Jour. Bacter. and Pathol., 1920, 



