PYOCYANEUS BACILLUS l6l 



laboratory animals. Neither the bacilli or the toxin they elaborate 

 are destroyed by heat. Flesh is infected before death, after which, 

 both the bacilli and toxin increase. Mischief follows the partaking 

 (usually in the form of sausages, etc.) of this meat, causing, in men, 

 violent nausea and diarrhoea, skin eruption, and in severe cases, 

 pneumonia, nephritis, collapse and death. Mortality is from 2 

 percent to 15 percent. The post mortem findings are not specific. 

 There may be evidence of an enteritis with swollen lymph follicles, 

 and an enlarged spleen. 



Agglutination. The blood of infected individuals may agglu- 

 tinate bacilli. A dilution of such blood with 8,obo parts of water 

 has produced the reaction. 



No anti-serum or bacterin treatment is as yet possible. 



PYOCYANEUS BACILLUS. 



Bacterium Pyocyaneus. 



Bacillus Pyocyaneus. (Fig. 53.) 



Bacillus of Blue Pus. Also called Pseudomonas pyocyanea. 



An organism of minor importance as a pathogenic agent, that is 

 often met with in groin or axilla. 



Morphology and Stains. Slender rods, often growing into 

 thread-like forms. Exhibits pleomorphism. Sometimes is rounded 

 and cocci-like, is motile, has a polar flagellum, and no spores. 

 Stains with all the basic aniline dyes, but not with Gram's method. 



Oxygen Requirements. Usually a strict aerobe. 



Cultures. Grows on all the common culture media luxuriantly, 

 at room and incubator temperatures. It elaborates two pigments, 

 a water-soluble greenish bacteriofluorescein, and a chloroform- 

 soluble pigment, a beautiful blue in color, called pyocyanin. On 

 gelatine plates it produces yellowish-white to greenish-yellow 

 colonies which liquefy the gelatine, causing crater-like excavations 

 about the colonies. Gelatine stab cultures rapidly liquefy along 

 the line of inoculation, coloring the gelatine greenish-blue, and a 



