THE ANAEROBIC BACILLI 759 



Differentiation of Vibrion Septique and B. Chauvaei (Bacillus 

 of symptomatic anthrax, Blackleg). B. chauvaei was in no instance 

 isolated from wound cultures, and has never been known to cause 

 an infection in man. Vibrion septique, on the other hand, frequently 

 infects animals and a bacteriological differentiation between vibrion 

 septique and B. chauvaei must be made. These two organisms are 

 closely related and very similar, and a reliable differentiation is 

 difficult even for a bacteriologist familiar with anaerobic bacilli. 

 Robertson distinguishes between B. chauvaei and vibrion septique 

 by the fact that the former ferment saccharose and not salicin, 

 whereas vibrion septique ferments salicin and not saccharose. Long 

 snake-like filaments are demonstrable in smears from the liver of 

 guinea-pigs dead of vibrion septique infection; these are entirely 

 lacking in B. chauvaei infections. Vibrion septique is more patho- 

 genic for laboratory animals and produces more gas in the tissues 

 than B. chauvaei. B. chauvaei grows more slowly than vibrion 

 septique. Vibrion septique is Gram-positive, whereas most inves- 

 tigators consider B. chauvaei Gram-negative. Protection tests with 

 a known vibrion 'septique antitoxin ought to prove the most reliable 

 way of identifying vibrion septique. 



B. oedematiens. Weinberg and Seguin claim to have isolated 

 this organism in 34 per cent of the wounds examined by them. This 

 is a higher proportion than that obtained by other workers. Henry 

 found B. oedematiens in five out of fifty cases examined. B. oedema- 

 tiens was isolated in 1915 by Weinberg and Seguin. In 1916 a 

 similar organism was isolated by Sacquepee 25 under the name 

 "bacille de Toedeme gazeuse malm." Later Sacquepee called this 

 organism B. Bellonensis. B. Bellonensis and B. oedematiens are 

 now considered to be the same organism by the majority of workers. 

 According to Heller, B. oedematiens is closely related to but not 

 identical with a bacillus discovered in 1894 by Novy and called 

 by him B. oedematiens maligin II. 26 B. oedematiens is a strict 

 anaerobe. It is a large Gram-positive bacillus, resembling anthrax 

 in appearance. It is practically non-motile. It forms chains in 

 culture and often shows curved forms after two or three days. 

 Filaments are not formed in the animal body. It forms oval sub- 

 terminal spores readily in all media. It ferments most of the 



26 Sacquepee, Ann. de 1'inst. Past., 30, 1916, 76. 

 , Zeit. f. Hyg., 17, 1894, 209. 



