INFECTIONS OF THE DIGESTIVE TRACT 197 



surgical and obstetrical diseases. Some confusion has 

 arisen from the fact that the organism is known in 

 different countries under different names. In Ger- 

 many it is known as the gas-phlegmon bacillus (Fraen- 

 kel) ; in France, as B. perfringens (Veillon and Zuber) ; 

 and Dr. Welch was able to obtain the organism 

 first described by him as B. aerogenes capsulatus 

 from a culture of B. enteritidis sporogenes sent to 

 him by Dr. Klein. The same organism as B. aerogenes 

 capsulatus (but in a non-virulent form) has been de- 

 scribed by Grassberger and Schattenf roh under the name 

 of granulo-bacillus immobilis liquefaciens. 1 It occurs 

 commonly in market milk. 



Opinions differ rather widely as to the pathogenic 

 properties of B. aerogenes capsulatus for man and animals. 

 Professor Welch, 2 who first discovered the organism in 

 connection with human surgical infections, was disposed 

 to regard it as not being ordinarily highly pathogenic. 

 In reference to healthy rabbits he says we cannot regard 

 this bacillus as being pathogenic under ordinary con- 

 ditions. Dunham, 3 who, in the course of his clever 

 investigations on B. aerogenes capsulatus, discovered 



1 Professor Welch and some other bacteriologists regard the 

 bacillus of Grassberger and Schattenf roh as identical with B. 

 aerogenes capsulatus in everything except pathogenicity. Other 

 writers dissent from their view. The two anaerobes are surely 

 very closely related if not identical. 



'"A Gas-producing Bacillus (Bacillus Aerogenes Capsulatus, 

 Nov. Spec.) capable of Rapid Development in the Blood-vessels 

 after Death," by Wm. H. Welch and Geo. A. F. Nuttall, Bull, of 

 the Johns Hopkins Hosp., No. 24, July-August, 1892. 



3 " Report of Five Cases of Infection by the Bacillus Aerogenes 

 Capsulatus (Welch)," Bull, of the Johns Hopkins Hosp., No. 73, 

 April, 1897. 



