INFECTIONS OF THE DIGESTIVE TRACT 205 



is usually noted in persons who at autopsy show signs of 

 general invasion of the gas-bacillus. 



The capacity of B. aerogenes capsulatus to form poisons 

 is apparently not limited to haemolytic and proteo- 

 clastic substances. Kamen * states that when the sporo- 

 genic form 2 of the organism is grown on a suitable 

 medium it forms soluble poisons (obtainable in the 

 filtrate) which are capable of inducing in rabbits a state 

 of nervous excitation followed by general convulsions 

 and paralysis of respiration. He found that one-half to 

 one and one-half cubic centimeters is fatal for one kilo- 

 gram rabbit in one-half to one minute. Kamen likens 

 the material studied by him to Faust's "sepsin," hi that 

 it acts as a respiratory poison and induces vomiting, 

 bloody diarrhoea, tenesmus, and death. These gastro- 

 enteric symptoms are associated with oedema and hy- 

 persemia of the gastro-enteric tract. The poisonous 

 substances in question are said to be dialyzable and 

 not destroyed by heating for fifteen minutes at 60 C. I 

 have been unable to confirm these observations by means 

 of filtrates prepared from cultures of the vegetative form 

 of B. aerogenes capsulatus, but it is distinctly stated by 

 Passini that the products of the sporogenic and asporo- 

 genic forms of the organism are different. 



I think it important to determine whether B. aerogenes 

 capsulatus is able to produce substances injurious to the 



1 "Zur Etiologie der Gasphlegmone," Centralbl. f. Bakt., Orig., 

 xxxv, pp. 554, 686, 1904. 



2 This form of the organism was obtained by growing the com- 

 mon vegetative form on an egg-and-bouillon medium. 



