BACILLUS PYOCYANEUS 239 



anthrax, and shortly afterwards injected with a broth 

 culture of the Bacillus pyocyaneus, a fatal result is averted. 

 Emmerich and Loew 1 claim to have isolated from cultures 

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

 has preventive and curative properties towards anthrax 

 and diphtheria infections. Emmerich 2 has employed the 

 dry pyocyanase as an application in diphtheria to dissolve 

 the false membrane. 



Williams and Cameron 3 describe four cases of diarrhoea 

 with green stools, wasting and death in infants in which 

 the B. pyocyaneus was obtained, and suggest that many 

 cases of marasmus may be due to it. A form of epidemic 

 dysentery 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 erup- 

 tions. 4 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 pathogenicity, 

 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 bearing a remarkable similarity 

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



Clinical Examination 



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 examination 

 may be more particularly directed towards the isolation of the 

 suspected organism. For example, in a urethral discharge the 



1 Zeitschr. /. Hyg., 1899 ; Centr. f. Bakt., xxxi (Originate], p. 1. 



2 Munch, med. Woch., November 5 and 12, 1907. 



3 Journ. Path, and Bact., vol. iii, 1896, p. 344 (Refs.). 



4 See Fernet, Brit. Wed. Journ.. vol. ii. 1904, p. 992. 



