BACTERIUM WELCHII. 557 



1891, and subsequently by Welch and Nuttall l in the 

 blood and internal organs of a patient with thoracic 

 aneurism opening externally. Autopsy was made eight 

 hours after death and the vessels were found to contain 

 large numbers of gas bubbles. 



Injections of considerable quantities of cultures into 

 the circulation of rabbits did not kill the animals, but 

 if the animals were killed after being inoculated and 

 were then allowed to lie at room temperature for twenty- 

 four hours the organs and tissues were filled with gas 

 bubbles. 



Welch, Howard, Hitschman and Lilienthal, Hirsch- 

 berg, and others have shown that the organism is fre- 

 quently present in the faeces of man and animals, as 

 well as in the soil and in dust. Schattenfroh and Grass- 

 berger also found the organism in market milk. 



BACILLUS SPOROGENES (KLEIN), MIGULA, 1900. 

 Synonym : Bacillus enteritidis sporogenes, Klein, 1895. 



Klein found this organism in the intestinal discharges 

 of infants and believed it had some relation to the acute 

 inflammatory conditions of the intestinal tract of bottle- 

 fed infants. The organism is very generally distributed 

 in nature and can be very readily isolated from sewage 

 by appropriate methods. It is an anaerobic, spore-form- 

 ing organism, 0.8 micron in width, and 1.6 to 4.8 microns 

 in length. It is actively motile and flagella have been 

 demonstrated. 



In culture media containing carbohydrates this organ- 

 ism produces gas in large quantities. Russell analyzed 

 the gas and found it to be composed principally of 

 methane. Milk and other sugar media in which the 



1 Welch and Nuttall : Bulletin Johns Hopkins Hospital, No. 24, 1892. 



