THE DYSENTERY BACILLI 437 



dysentery cases in the Philippines which was essentially like that of 

 Flexner. 



Nearly simultaneously with the papers of Flexner and of Strong and 

 Musgrave, Kruse l published investigations of an epidemic of dysentery 

 occurring in Germany. His observations were of the greatest importance 

 and largely formed the starting point of the further advances which 

 have been - made in the etiology of dysentery. 



Kruse's organism was described as forming colonies on gelatin and 

 agar, practically like those of Bacillus typhosus. Like this bacillus, no 

 gas was formed from grape sugar, and the growth in milk and on potato, 

 and even in Piorkowski's urine gelatin, resembled that of Bacillus 

 typhosus. According to Kruse, this organism was absolutely with- 

 out motility. 



In 1901 Kruse 2 contributed a second paper. In this, besides con- 

 firming his previous observations, he described another class of organ- 

 ism coming from cases which he designated as " pseudo-dysentery of 

 insane asylums." In the case of one patient, and at two autopsies, he 

 isolated orgafedsms which he could not distinguish morphologically or cul- 

 turally from the true dysentery bacillus, but which showed differences in 

 their serum reaction. By careful study of the behavior of these bacilli 

 in the serum of patients and in immune serum from animals, he not 

 only showed that they were different from his original cultures from 

 cases of epidemic dysentery which, no matter what their source, were 

 found to be alike, but that they showed differences among themselves 

 and apparently fell into two or more varieties. One of these organisms 

 culturally and by its serum reactions showed itself practically identical 

 with one of the cultures he had received from Flexner. 



Spronck 3 in 1901 described an organism isolated in Utrecht from 

 dysentery cases, which showed great similarity to the Shiga-Kruse 

 organism; but, when tested in the serum of a horse immunized against 

 true dysentery bacillus, showed practically no agglutination. He placed 

 this organism in the group designated by Kruse as the " pseudo-dysentery 

 bacilli." His communication is of importance, since it is the first re- 

 ported instance in which any investigator had recognized and associated 

 the so-called pseudo-dysentery bacilli with dysentery approaching the 

 acute epidemic form in type. 



Following this work a number of investigators, including Vedder 



1 Kruse, Deut. med. Woch., xxvi, 1900. 



2 Kruse, Deut. med. Woch., xxvii, 1901. 



Spronck, Ref. Baumgarten's Jahresber., 1901. 



