Bacillus Coli Communis 521 



sorbed from the intestine, it frequently enters the kidney 

 and is excreted with the urine, causing, incidentally, local 

 inflammatory areas in the kidney, and occasionally cystitis. 

 A case of urethritis is reported to have been caused by it. 



In infants cholera infantum may not infrequently be 

 caused by the colon bacillus, though probably in this disease 

 other bacteria play an important role (B. dysenteriae ?). 



The bile-ducts are sometimes invaded by the bacillus, 

 which may lead to inflammation, obstruction, suppuration, 

 or calculous formation. 



The colon bacillus has also been met with in puerperal 

 fever, Winckel's disease of the new-born, endocarditis, 

 meningitis, liver-abscess, broncho-pneumonia, pleuritis, 

 chronic tonsillitis, and urethritis. 



Virulence. It is a question whether the colon bacillus is 

 always virulent, or whether it becomes so under abnormal 

 conditions. Klencki * found it very virulent in the ileum, 

 and less so in the colon and jejunum of dogs. He also 

 found that the virulence was greatly increased in a strangu- 

 lated portion of intestine. Dreyfus f found that the colon 

 bacillus as it occurs in normal feces is not virulent. Most 

 experimenters believe that pathologic conditions, such as 

 disease of the intestine, ligation of the intestine, etc., increase 

 its virulence. 



Frequent transplantation lessens the virulence of the 

 bacillus; passage through animals increases it. 



It has been observed that cultures of the bacillus obtained 

 from cases of cholera, cholera nostras, and other intestinal 

 diseases are more pathogenic than those obtained from 

 normal feces or from pus. 



Adelaide Ward Peckham,{ in an elaborate study of the 

 "Influence of Environment on the Colon Bacillus," con- 

 cludes that while the conditions of nutrition and develop- 

 ment in the intestine seem to be most favorable, the colon 

 bacillus is ordinarily not virulent. She says: 



"Its first force is spent upon the process of fermentation, and as 

 long as opportunities exist for the exercise of this function the affinities 

 of this organism appear to be strongest in this direction. 



"Moreover, the contents of the intestine remain acid until they 



*"Ann. de 1'Inst. Pasteur," 1895, No. 9. 

 f'Centralbl. f. Bakt.," etc., xvi, p. 581. 



t "Journal of Experimental Medicine," Sept., 1897, vol. n, No. 4, 

 p. 549. 



