53 6 .4 CTERIOLOG Y. 



Welch, Howard, Hitschman and Lilienthal, Hirsch- 

 berg, and others have shown that the organism is fre- 

 quently present in the fces of man and animals, as 

 well as in the soil and in dust. Schattenfroh and Grass- 

 berger also found the organism in market milk. 



BACILLUS SPOROGENES (KLEIN), MIGULA, 1 900. 

 Synonym : Bacillus enteritidis sporogenes, Klein, 1895. 



Klein found this organism in the intestinal discharges 

 of infants and believed it had some relation to the acute 

 inflammatory conditions of the intestinal tract of bottle- 

 fed infants. The organism is very generally distributed 

 in nature and can be very readily isolated from sewage 

 by appropriate methods. It is an anaerobic, spore-form- 

 ing organism, 0.8 micron in width, and 1.6 to 4.8 microns 

 in length. It is actively motile and flagella have been 

 demonstrated. 



In culture media containing carbohydrates this organ- 

 ism produces gas in large quantities. Russell analyzed 

 the gas and found it to be composed principally of 

 methane. Milk and other sugar media in which the 

 organism has been grown have a distinct odor of butyric 

 acid. 



When injected subcutaneously into guinea-pigs this 

 organism causes most marked alterations. There is 

 intense inflammation at the point of injection with 

 oadema and necrosis and the surrounding tissues are 

 filled with gas. The bacteria are distributed throughout 

 the body of the animal and can be isolated in pure cul- 

 ture from the blood of the heart. All the internal 

 organs are intensely congested. 



