BACILLUS PYOCYANEU8 285 



broth culture of the Bacillus pyocyaneus, a fatal result is 

 averted. Emmerich and Loew l isolated from cultures a 

 ferment-like body, " pyocyanase," which they state has 

 preventive and curative properties towards anthrax and 

 diphtheria infections. Dry pyocyanase has been used 

 as an application in diphtheria to dissolve the false 

 membrane. 



B. pyocyaneus sometimes occurs in diarrhoea with green 

 stools and may be isolated from the blood in some cases of 

 marasmus in young children. A form of epidemic dysen- 

 tery seems occasionally to be caused by this organism 

 (see " Dysentery "). A few cases of general infection 

 with this organism have also been recorded. It has also 

 been isolated from conditions of dermatitis and bullous 

 eruptions. 2 The B. pyocyaneus has been found in water, 

 dung, soil, and in the effluent from filter beds. Lehmann 

 and Neumann state that, with the exception of patho- 

 genicity, there is no essential difference between this 

 organism and the B. fluorescens liquefaciens so frequently 

 met with in water. 



The B. pyocyaneus seems to be of more frequent occur- 

 rence and of greater pathogenicity in the tropics than in 

 this country. A disease in dogs bearing a remarkable 

 similarity to rabies may be caused by it (see " Rabies "). 



Clinical Examination in Septic Diseases 



In many cases some idea can probably be formed as to the 

 organisms likely to be present in the pus or discharge, etc., from 

 the clinical characters of the disease, in which case the examina- 

 tion may be more particularly directed towards the isolation of 

 the suspected organism. For example, in a urethral discharge 

 the gonococcus will be especially looked for, in an empyema fol- 

 lowing pneumonia the Diplococcus pneumonice, in a meningeal 

 exudate the D. pneumonice or the D. intracellularis, B. tuberculosis 



1 Zeitschr. /. Hyg., 1899 ; Centr. /. Bakt., xxxi (Originak), p. 1. 



2 See Fernet, Brit. Med. Journ., vol. ii, 1904, p. 992. 



