452 BACILLUS BOTULINUS 



below, similar symptoms have been experimentally produced by 

 means of the bacillus mentioned or its toxins. The chief 

 symptoms of this variety of botulismus, as detailed by van 

 Ermengem, are disordered secretion in the mouth and nose, 

 more or less marked ophthalmoplegia, externa and interna (dilated 

 pupil, ptosis, etc.), dysphagia, and sometimes aphagia with 

 aphonia, marked constipation and retention of urine, and in 

 fatal cases interference with the cardiac and respiratory centres. 

 Along with these there is practically no fever and no interference 

 with the intellectual faculties. The symptoms commence at 

 earliest twelve to twenty-four hours after ingestion of the poison. 

 From the ham in question, which was not decomposed in the 

 ordinary sense, van Ermengem obtained numerous colonies of 

 this bacillus, the leading characters of which are given below. 

 It- may be added that Homer obtained practically the same 

 results as van Ermengem in a similar condition, and that the 

 bacillus botulinus has been cultivated by Kempner from the 

 intestine of the pig. 



Microscopical and Cultural Characters. The organism is a 

 bacillus of considerable size, measuring 4 to 9 p in length and 

 9 to 1 '2 /x in thickness ; it has somewhat rounded ends and 

 sometimes is seen in a spindle form. It is often arranged in 

 pairs, sometimes in short threads. Under certain conditions 

 it forms spores which are oval in shape, usually terminal in 

 position, and a little thicker than the bacilli. It is a motile 

 organism and has 4 to 8 lateral flagella of wavy form. It 

 stains readily with the ordinary dyes, and also retains the 

 colour in Gram's method, though care must be employed in 

 decolorising. 



The organisms can be readily cultivated on the ordinary 

 media, but only under strictly anaerobic conditions. In glucose 

 gelatin a whitish line of growth forms with lateral offshoots, 

 but liquefaction with abundant gas formation soon occurs. In 

 gelatin plates the colonies after four to six days are somewhat 

 characteristic; they appear to the naked eye as small semi- 

 transparent spheres, and these on examination under a low 

 power of the microscope have a yellowish-brown colour and are 

 seen to be composed of granules which show a streaming move- 

 ment, especially at the periphery. Cultures in glucose agar 

 resemble those of certain other anaerobes; there is abundant 

 development of gas, and the medium is split up in various 

 directions. The cultures have a rancid, though not foul, odour, 

 due chiefly to the development of butyric acid. The optimum 

 temperature is below that of the body, namely, between 20 and 



