PARATYPHOID AND DYSENTERY. 89 



r]>a rated from Gartner's bacillus. In paratyphoid A there is less gas 

 produced in glucose bouillon than with paratyphoid B, and the primary 

 acidity of litmus milk is not succeeded by a subsequent alkalinity. It 

 does not seem practical to draw a fine distinction between these two 

 strains. Bacillus Enteritidis (Gartner, 1888). This organism has 

 been frequently isolated from cases of gastroenteritis from ingestion 

 of infected meat. This organism is very pathogenic for laboratory 

 animals, producing a hemorrhagic enteritis and at times a septicaemia. 

 Where meat has been contaminated with Gartner's bacillus toxins may 

 have been produced, and symptoms of poisoning with acute gastro- 

 enteritis would occur shortly after ingestion. It is interesting to note 

 that this toxin is not destroyed by the boiling temperature, thus differ- 

 ing from the toxin of the other important meat poisoning (botulism) 

 bacillus B. botulinus which is rendered innocuous by a temperature 

 of 65 or 70 C. If there is only a little toxin introduced with the con- 

 taminated meat, the symptoms will be delayed one or two days. Such 

 organisms have been isolated in pure culture from cases with high 

 fever, marked intestinal derangement, with considerable blood in the 

 rather fluid stools. In two cases studied the disease was at first 

 diagnosed as a severe typhoid infection. Klein thinks the organism of 

 Danysz's virus (to kill rats during plague epidemics) may be identical 

 with B. enteritidis. 



Proteus Vulgaris. This organism is often encountered in plates 

 made from feces. It is common in decaying meat or cheese, and cases 

 of even fatal poisoning with marked gastrointestinal symptoms and 

 cardiac failure have been reported. At times it is the cause of cystitis. 

 The colonies on agar are moist and unevenly spreading (amoeboid). 

 The bacilli are very motile and, as a rule, Gram negative. It digests 

 blood serum and is a rapid liquefier of gelatin. The cultures generally 

 have a putrefactive odor. In infective jaundice (Weil's disease) this 

 organism has been reported as the cause. 



Bacillus Dysenteriae (Shiga, 1898). Dysentery bacilli produce 

 a coagulation necrosis of the mucous membrane of the large intestine 

 and occasionally of the lower part of the ileum. Polymorphonuclears 

 are contained in the fibrin exudate. It was formerly thought that these 

 lesions were of local origin, but the present view is that toxins are 



