BACILLUS COPROGENES FCETIDUS. 379 



undergoes putrefaction after infection with cultivations 

 of the bacilli in the presence of air ; when air is absent 

 there is at first violent decomposition, which, however, 

 soon ceases. Suppuration occurred in rabbits after 

 injection of the bacilli into the knee joint. 



Bacillus coprogenes foetidus (Schottelius). 



In the course of investigations on swine erysipelas Schottelius' 

 Schottelius found that in all cases some of the puncture bacillus^ 

 cultivations in nutrient jelly, where the infective material 

 was taken from the organs, more especially from the 

 mesenteric glands and the spleen, contained, besides the 

 characteristic colonies of the erysipelas bacilli, also a 

 few light yellow spherical colonies, composed of larger 

 bacilli. These rods are about as thick as the hay bacilli Morphological 

 but shorter ; but the length of the individual bacilli c 

 differs markedly, according to the nutritive conditions. 

 They are non-motile. The ends of the rods are 

 rounded. In cultivations spore formation occurs after 

 3 or 4 days at the temperature of the room ; the spores 

 are arranged in rows ; when they germinate the long 

 axis of the new rod is at right angles to the long axis of 

 the spore, so that from a row of spores six or eight small 

 rods may grow out, lying with the long diameter parallel 

 to each other. The spores are only formed when air is 

 present, and do not appear in the animal body. In the Cultivations, 

 deeper parts of the nutrient jelly the 

 bacilli form pale yellow closed colonies 

 which do not liquefy the jelly ; on the 

 surface they produce a fine, transparent, 

 greyish layer. The cultivations give 

 off an intense putrefactive odour. On Fig. 105. Bacillu 



,. ,* , , , coprogenesfcotidus 



potatoes a light grey dry layer, about (Schottelius) x 

 5 mm. in thickness, is formed. Sub- about 600. 

 cutaneous injections of small quantities of the cultiva- 

 tion produced no effect on mice and rabbits ; but very 

 large quantities produced a toxic effect in rabbits, but 

 none on swine. 



The same organism could be demonstrated by Schot- 



