BACILLUS SEPTICUS SPUTIGENUS. 325 



Bacillus septicus sputigenus (Fraenkel). 



These organisms have been repeatedly observed by Fraenkel's 

 A. Fraenkel * in the rust-coloured sputum of patients bacteria, 

 suffering from pneumonia. These microbes have the 

 appearance of cocci, resembling very much the pneu- 

 monia bacteria, and like these they are surrounded by a 

 broad capsule. They do not grow on gelatine at the 

 ordinary temperature, but they grow on agar and blood 

 serum at the body temperature ; in the latter they form 

 a veil-like almost transparent layer, or a deposit like 

 drops of dew. Babbits die after subcutaneous inocu- 

 lation in 24 to 48 hours, with the symptoms of acute 

 septicaemia. Fraenkel thinks it probable that these 

 bacteria have a causal relation with human pneumonia 

 and with the empyemata which develop after pneumonia. 

 A more detailed description of these organisms has not as 

 yet been furnished. 



Bacillus pncumonicus agilis (Schou). 



These organisms were cultivated by Schou on three Bacteria of 

 occasions from the lungs of rabbits which had become 

 affected with pneumonia after section of the vagus nerve. 

 They present the form of short thick rods, or more 

 elliptical cells often occurring in pairs, or, seldom, in 

 chains of three or four members. They do not stain by 

 Gram's method. When examined in drop cultivations 

 they show very active spontaneous movements ; in 

 gelatine plates the colonies of the bacilli appear under a 

 low power as round, dark, granular discs, with a slightly 

 rough surface and borders. After 20 to 24 hours 

 liquefaction of the gelatine commences, and even under 

 a low power we see very marked movements in the middle 

 of the colony. At this stage the borders appear as if 

 surrounded by a small crown of rays, but soon after- 

 wards the gelatine becomes entirely liquefied. On soli- 

 dified blood serum the bacillus grows very slowly, and 

 leads to slight liquefaction of the serum ; in broth it 

 forms a plentiful yellowish deposit at the bottom of the 

 * Lit., p. 37. 



