BACILLUS AEROGENES CAPSULATUS. 471 



At times, however, as in a case of Graham Stewart 

 and Baldwin, there is no doubt that the bacillus produces 

 gas in the tissues of the entire body during life. These 

 observers, in a case of abortion with subsequent infection, 

 found the patient " enl^hysematous from the top of her 

 head to the soles of her feet" several hours before 

 death. 



In this case, in which the bacillus was found in pure 

 culture, it would indeed be difficult to doubt that the 

 fatal issue was due to the bacillus aerogenes capsulatus. 

 Whether the fatal termination of the cases is due to the 

 presence of gas in the vessels, or partly to that and partly 

 to some toxic property it possesses, does not seem to have 

 been worked out as yet. It would seem, however, to have 

 a toxic property from the fact that the onset of the infec- 

 tion is first shown by the occurrence of chill, pyrexia, 

 and rapid pulse, and from the change caused by the 

 clumps of bacilli upon the surrounding cells of the tis- 

 sues in which they occur. 



