248 IMPORTANT VARIETIES OF FISSION-FUNGI. 



Gordan found it constantly in decomposing fruits (C. B. 

 L. iv, 247). 



(b) In the healthy body : In intestinal canal even in the 

 first milk-stool. It is never absent in any normal human 

 or animal intestine. In the bodies of 32 healthy persons, 

 which were examined from twenty-four to thirty-six hours 

 after death, the B. coli was present 16 times, especially in 

 the liver and kidneys, doubtless having wandered out 

 from the intestine. Wurtz and Hermann (C. B. xn, 

 388). 



(c) In diseased human body (the motile and non-motile 

 forms are not often separated) : As the cause of numerous 

 diseases, especially of the abdominal organs : peritonitis, 

 cystitis x (partly alone, especially when the urine is acid, 

 sometimes associated with the Bact. vulgare ; see under the 

 latter), urethritis, pyelonephritis, suppurative nephritis, 

 perinephritis. It occurs remarkably often in suppurative 

 strumitis. A number of intestinal affections appear to be 

 associated with virulent forms of the colon group ; at 

 all events, according to Dreyfuss (C. B. xvi, 581), the 

 forms isolated from the diseased intestine are much 

 more virulent for rabbits than those isolated from the 

 healthy intestine. Regarding its relation to dysentery, 

 see page 251. Many authors ascribe also certain cases 

 of cholera nostras to it. (Vaughan and Perkins found an 

 organism related to the colon group to be the producer 

 of poison in confectioner' s ice. C. B. L. n, 799. ) Most 

 cases of " typhoid " or choleriform disease from the eating 

 of diseased meat depend upon it (see below). Axel 

 Host traced the Norwegian disease from the eating of 

 "knetkase" to infection with the colon bacterium (C. B. 

 xx, 160). More rarely the Bact. coli is the cause of 

 pneumonia (Klein, C. B. v, 625), leptomeningitis of 

 infants, icterus gravis, Winckel's disease (Lubarsch, 

 Virch. Arch., cxxni), melsena neonatorum, puerperal 

 fever, panophthalmia, infection of wounds (wound-diph- 

 theria). Thoinot and Masselin hold it to be the cause of 



1 The cystitis microbes, which do not liquefy gelatin, described by 

 different authors (Kebland, Clado, Halle, Albarran, etc.) under the 

 most various names, appear to be almost always Bact. coli ; compare 

 page 247. 



