586 



BACTERIA OF CADAVERS AND OF 



my Bacillus cadaveris, together with the Bacillus coli communis 

 of Escherich, my Bacillus hepaticus fortuitus, and other non-lique- 

 fying bacilli of the "colon group." 



These bacteria did not give rise to a putrefactive odor, and the 

 fragment of liver when cut into had a fresh appearance and a very 

 acid reaction. Later, putrefactive changes occurred and Proteus 



FIG. 197. Smear preparation from liver of yellow-fever cadaver, kept forty-eight hours in an 

 antiseptic wrapping, x 1,000. From a photomicrograph. (Sternberg.) 



vulgaris and other putrefactive bacteria obtained the precedence. 

 Evidently all of these species must have been present in the liver at 

 the time it was removed from the cadaver, although in such small 

 numbers that they were rarely seen in smear preparations or ob- 

 tained in cultures from the fresh liver tissue. The appearance of a 

 smear preparation from the interior of a fragment preserved for 

 forty-eight hours in an antiseptic wrapping is shown in Fig. 197. 



The horribly offensive gases which are given off from dead ani- 

 mals in a state of putrefaction appear to be due to certain large an- 

 aerobic bacilli which are found in such material, 

 and which have not yet been thoroughly studied 

 owing to the difficulty of cultivating them in arti- 



VS ficial media ; among them is a large bacillus with 

 c-ff* round ends which forms an oval spore at one ex- 

 ^P ^. ^ tremity of the rather long rod. This the writer 

 ^ ^Sfc h as described under the name of Bacillus cada- 



FIQ. we. veris grandis, Fig. 198. 



In the interior of a putrefying mass of this kind 



only those bacteria are found which are able to grow in the absence 

 of oxygen, but aerobic saprophytes may multiply upon the surface of 



