BACILLARY DYSENTERY 445 



Summer Diarrhoea of Infants 



Morgan x isolated in 50 per cent, of cases of summer diarrhoea of 

 infants a motile bacillus producing acid and gas from glucose which 

 appears to be most closely allied to the hog-cholera bacillus, 

 differing from the latter by producing alkalinity in litmus milk 

 (without previous acidity) and much indole, and by failing to 

 produce acid and gas from mannitol, arabinose, maltose, and 

 dextrin. It does not ferment dulcitol, saccharose, salicin and 

 sorbite. There are two variants, designated No. 1 and No. 2. 

 Thjotta 2 has studied the organism from cases of diarrhoea in 

 Norway. He doubts its specificity and suggests that it may be 

 a B. coli of peculiar fermenting type. (See also Chapter XX.) 



Bacillary Dysentery 3 



One type of dysentery, the so-called epidemic or 

 bacillary form (see " Dysentery," Chap. XX), is caused 

 by bacilli (B. [Bacterium} dysenterice) which form a group 

 of allied organisms, the dysentery bacilli. 



A dysentery bacillus was first isolated in 1897 by 

 Shiga in Japan. Somewhat later Kruse isolated an 

 identical bacillus in Germany, and this type is known as 

 the Shiga -Kruse type. Later, Flexner and Strong isolated 

 other types of dysentery bacilli, and during the last few 

 years similar organisms, but differing from the Shiga- 

 Kruse and Flexner-Strong types in some of their fer- 

 mentation and other reactions, have been isolated. 

 Dysentery bacilli cause dysentery in all parts of the world, 

 and were also frequently met with during the War on the 

 Eastern and Western fronts. The predominant infection 



1 Brit. Med. Journ., 1906, vol. i, pp. 908 and 1131 ; ibid. 1907, vol. i, p. 16. 



2 Journ. of Bacteriology, vol. v, 1920, p. 67. 



3 See Reports to the Medical Research Committee, Special Rep. Series, 

 No. 5, 1917 (Rajchman and Western), No. 29, 1919 (Fletcher and Mackinnon), 

 No. 30, 1919 (Getting), No. 40, 1919 (Dudgeon), No. 42, 1919 (Andrewes and 

 Inman) ; Andrewes, Lancet, 1918, vol. i, p. 560. 



