THE BACILLUS PYOCYANEUS 805 



out of the stools of children suffering from diarrhea, and has been 

 found at autopsy generally distributed throughout the organs of 

 children dead of gastro-enteritis. 30 It has been cultivated from the 

 spleen at autopsy from a case of general sepsis following mastoid 

 operation. The bacillus has been found, furthermore, during life 

 in pericardial exudate and in pus from liver abscesses. 31 



Brill and Libman, 32 as well as Finkelstein, 33 have cultivated 

 B. pyocyaneus from the blood of patients suffering from general 

 sepsis. Wassermann 34 showed the bacillus to have been the 

 etiological factor in an epidemic of umbilical infections in new-born 

 children. Similar examples of B. pyocyaneus infection in human 

 beings might be enumerated in large numbers, and there is no good 

 reason to doubt that, under given conditions, fatal infections may 

 occur. Such cases, however, are still to be regarded as depending 

 more upon the low resistance of the individual attacked than upon 

 the great pathogenicity of B. pyocyaneus. 



Many domestic animals are susceptible to experimental pyo- 

 cyaneus infection, chief among these being rabbits, goats, mice, and 

 guinea-pigs. Guinea-pigs are killed by this bacillus with especial 

 ease. Intraperitoneal inoculation with a loopful of a culture of 

 average virulence usually leads to the death of a young guinea-pig 

 within three or four days. 



Toxins and Immunization. Emmerich and Low have shown that 

 filtrates of old broth cultures of B. pyocyaneus contain a ferment-like 

 substance which possesses the power to destroy some other bacteria, 

 apparently by lysis. They have called this substance ' l pyocyanase ' ' 

 and claim that, with it, they have succeeded in protecting animals 

 from anthrax infection. During recent years' pyocyanase has been 

 employed locally for the removal of diphtheria bacilli from the 

 throats of convalescent cases. Broth-culture filtrates evaporated to 

 one-tenth their volume in vacuo are used for this purpose. 



Pyocyanase is exceedingly thermostable, resisting boiling for 

 several hours, and is probably not identical with any of the other 

 toxins or peptonizing ferments produced by B. pyocyaneus. 



80 Neumann, Jahrb. f. Kinderheilk., 1890. 



"Kraunhals, Zeit. f. Chir., xxxvii, 1893. 



32 Brill and Libman, Amer. Jour. Med. Sci., 1899. 



"Finkelstein, Cent. f. Bakt., 1899. 



84 Wassermann, Virchow 's Arch., clxv, 1901. 



