BACILLUS SPOROGENES. 347 



Gram's, blue with iodin), motility, and spore-formation. 



"he flagella are located at the ends especially in little 

 inches; the motion is sluggish. Also, in the edema no 



KDg threads are formed. The growths possess no mor- 

 )hologic value. According to v. Hibler, gelatin is slowly 

 [queried. Brain nutrient media is very slowly darkened. 



[ilk is very rapidly decomposed, with vigorous formation 

 )f butyric acid and gas. 1 According to Klein, no spores 



:e formed in milk in fourteen days, but they readily 



levelop upon serum. Spores withstand 100° for one hour. 



Subcutaneous injection kills guinea-pigs in eighteen to 



>rty- eight hours, with the development of a wide-spread- 



ig, foul-smelling edema, containing abundant bacilli, and 

 gas. Sometimes there is injection of the intestine and 

 >eritonitis. The spleen is not enlarged, and usually con- 



tins only a few bacilli and no threads. 

 In man the taking of milk which contains these bacilli 

 in abundance causes severe gastro-intestinal disturbances 



enteritis). So far, such occurrences have been observed 

 >nly in England. 

 According to Klein, the bacillus is widely distributed in 



iilk, intestinal contents of children and in cases of diar- 

 •hea, in street dirt, sewage, horse manure, etc. 

 Diagnosis. — The differential diagnosis from sympto- 



latic anthrax is decidedly more difficult than from ma- 

 ignant edema. Attention must be paid to the presence 

 )f bacteria in the bile in symptomatic anthrax. 



Other writers have described other producers of butyric 

 ;id. We give here, according to Klecki (C. B. L. n, 286), 

 a comparison of three of them with the Bacillus butyricus 

 Botkin. The literature is found in the same place. 



1 According to Klein, if spores are repeatedly transferred from 

 sugar-gelatin to sugar-gelatin, the organism loses the ability to form 

 gas abundantly in milk ; the milk remains alkaline and has a foul 

 odor. The bacillus forms long, sporulating threads instead of the 

 short members of the typical form; the virulence is almost or entirely 

 lost (C. B. xxii, 581). If there has been no mistake here, and that 

 seems improbable, then these observations are of very great significance, 

 since they show how characteristics upon which two species were for- 

 merly based occur as two forms of one culture. 



