BACILLUS ENTERITIDIS 125 



not cause a genuine infection, but an intoxication, and can be placed in 

 the same category as tetanus and diphtheria. The toxin can be pre- 

 cipitated with alcohol, tannic acid, and neutral salts. Other organisms 

 found associated with the Bacillus botulinus appear neither to favour 

 or retard its poisonous products. 



Bacteriological Diagnosis. In one of Van Ermengen's cases 

 the spores of the Bacillus botulinus were found in a ham, mostly in 

 the red or lean part, seldom in the fat. For animal experiments take 

 four parts of the suspected ham and cut it into small pieces, and add 

 five parts of sterilized water, and inject a minute quantity of the 

 infusion. Van Ermengen was able to isolate the Bacillus botulinus 

 out of the spleen, stomach, and intestinal contents of a man dead from 

 meat-poisoning. 



Immunity. Kempner produced immunity in animals with the 

 nitrate of a bouillon culture. The serum of the immunized animals 

 was highly antitoxic, and doses of 1 to 5 c.c. injected three to 

 twenty -four hours after a guinea-pig was poisoned with the Bacillus 

 botulinus resulted in the recovery of the affected animals. Kempner 

 and Pollack^ investigations show that after twenty hours the intoxica- 

 tion causes changes in the central nervous system, which again becomes 

 normal when the serum is used. 



BACILLUS ENTERITIDIS. 



This bacillus was discovered by Gartner in 1888 in a meat-poison- 

 ing epidemic, and since then has been observed in a number of similar 

 cases. 



Microscopical Appearances. Small rods. Hanging-drop speci- 

 mens from gelatine cultures show a difference between the centre and 

 the ends or polar portions of the rods, the former appearing to consist 

 of a less refractive substance. This peculiar difference appears only 

 to exist in gelatine cultures. 



Motility. Motile, possessing 2 to 5 long flagella. 



Staining Reactions. When stained with the ordinary aniline dyes, 

 the middle portion of the rod is strongly stained, while the ends or polar 

 portions are either weakly stained or entirely uncoloured. The reaction 

 with the Gram method is negative. 



Biological Characters. It grows at both room and incubator 

 temperature ; by the latter method the growth is quicker. 



On Gelatine Plates the colonies developing on the surface of the 

 medium appear as thin transparent films. The gelatine is not liquefied. 



In Gelatine Stab Cultures the growth extends along the whole length 



