298 IMPORTANT VARIETIES OF FISSION-FUNGI. 



(c) H 2 S and indol are produced abundantly. 



(d) Urea is vigorously transformed into ammonium 

 carbonate. (Compare p. 70. ) 



(e) Toxins : Hauser observed the production of exceed- 

 ingly powerful toxic metabolic products, which could be 

 obtained free of bacteria by passage through clay niters. 

 Tito Carbone has isolated cholin, ethylendiamin, gadinin, 

 and trimethylamin from meat cultures (C. B. viii, No. 

 768). 



The sepsin of Schmiedeberg, from putrid yeast (Mediz. 

 Centralblatt, 1868, No. 32), acts just like the metabolic 

 products of the Bact. vulgare (Levy), and appears to be a 

 product of that organism. 



Resistance. — Considerable against chemical and ther- 

 mal injuries, but is killed by 60° in one-quarter to one- 

 half minute (Meyerhof). 



Distribution. — 



(a) Outside the body : Very common in putrid meat and 

 other putrid objects. Cause of foul-smelling decomposi- 

 tion ; occurs in water from contamination with putrid ma- 

 terials. It never occurs in gelatin plates from air, but is 

 easily obtained if sterile or sterilized meat is allowed to 

 stand uncovered ; thus it is present in air. 



(6) In healthy body : Throughout the entire alimentary 

 tract. 



(c) In diseased human organism : Often alone it produces 

 severe catarrh of the bladder with ammoniacal urine; 

 often, also, in association with Bact. coli (Schnitzler, C. 

 B. xiv, 218). It is also the cause of other diseases of the 

 urinary organs. The urobacillus liquefaciens septicus of 

 writers is at least in part identical with the Bact. vulgare. 



While Bact. vulgare occurs rather frequently together 

 with other causes of disease (in foul phlegmons, abscesses, 

 pulmonary gangrene, decubitus, foul carcinomas, etc.), it 

 has relatively seldom been demonstrated to certainly be 

 the cause of diseases in man, as in a few cases of abscess, 

 inflammations of serous membranes, etc. 



Booker found varieties of the proteus in 18 cases of 

 cholera infantum (C. B. x, 284). 



Levy has demonstrated the Bact. vulgare to be the 

 cause of meat poisoning: Eighteen persons were taken 



