CHAPTER XXV. 



The Group of Bacilli Found in Cases of Epidemic, Endemic, and Sporadic 

 Dysentery The Morphological, Biological, and Pathogenic Char- 

 acters of the Several Members of the Group The Differentiation of 

 the Different Types of Bacilli. 



BACILLUS DYSENTERIC. 



THE investigations of epidemic dysentery by Shiga, 

 Flexner, Kruse, Vedder, Duval, Basset, Park, and many 

 others, have demonstrated that this disease is caused by 

 an organism that varies somewhat in its characters as 

 ericountered in different cases. So far at least four types of 

 organisms have been found that differ in minor particulars. 

 The type of organism first encountered by Shiga, in Japan, 

 is the one that is probably very widely distributed, because 

 it has been found in practically every place where search 

 has been made for it. The type of organism encountered 

 by Flexner in the Philippine Islands, and believed by him 

 to differ from the Shiga type, has also been found very 

 generally in the United States, especially in dysentery 

 occurring in infants. The type of organism isolated by 

 Hiss and Russell, and later by Park and his associates, has 

 most of the characteristics of the Flexner type of organism, 

 though the agglutination reaction shows that it is not 

 identical with it. 



At first certain investigators were inclined to regard the 

 Flexner type of organism as having no causative relation 

 (541) 



