510 



PATHOGENIC SPIRILLA. 



Biological Characters. Anaerobic and facultative anaerobic, liquefy- 

 ing, motile spirillum. Spore formation not demonstrated. Grows in the 

 usual culture media at the room temperature. Upon gelatin plates small, 

 white, punctiform colonies are developed at the end of twenty four hours, 

 which under the microscope are seen to be finely granular and yellowish or 

 yellowish-brown in color ; liquefaction of the gelatin around these colonies 

 progresses rapidly, and at the end of forty-eight hours is usually complete in 

 plates where they are numerous. Isolated colonies on the second day form 

 saucer-shaped depressions in the gelatin the size of lentils, having a sharply 

 defined border. In gelatin stick cultures liquefaction progresses much more 

 rapidly than in similar cultures of the cholera spirillum, and a stocking- 

 shaped pouch of liquefied gelatin is already seen on the second day, which 

 rapidly increases in dimensions, so that by the end of a week the gelatin is 

 usually completely liquefied ; upon the surface of the liquefied medium a 

 whitish film is seen. Upon agar a moist, slimy layer, covering the entire 

 surface, is quickly developed. The growth in blood serum is rapid and 



FIG. 180. 



Fia. 181. FIG. 182. 



Fio. 180. Spirillum of Finkler and Prior, from a gelatin culture. X 1,000. From a photomicro- 

 graph. (Frankel and Pfeiffer.) 



Fia. 181. Spirillum of Finkler and Prior; colonies upon gelatin plate; a, end of sixteen hours; 

 b, end of twenty-four hours; c; end of thirty-six hours. X 80. (Flugge ) 



Fia. 182. Spirillum of Finkler and Prior; culture in nutrient gelatin; c, two days old; d, four 

 days old. (Flugge.) 



causes liquefaction of the medium. Upon potato this spirillum ^rows at the 

 room temperature and produces a slimy, grayish-yellow, glistening layer, 

 which soon extends over the entire surface. The cholera spirillum does not 

 grow upon potato at the room temperature. The cultures of the Finkler- 

 Prior spirillum give off a tolerably strong putrefactive odor, and, according 

 to Buchner, in media containing sugar an acid reaction is produced as a re- 

 sult of their development. They have a greater resistance to desiccation than 

 the cholera spirillum. 



Pathogenesis. Pathogenic for guinea-pigs when injected into the 

 stomach by Koch's method, after previous injection of a solution of car- 

 bonate of soda, but a smaller proportion of the animals die from such injec- 

 tions (Koch). At the autopsy the intestine is pale, and its watery contents, 



