430 A MANUAL OF BACTERIOLOGY 



In some cases of infection the blood- serum agglutinates 

 the organism. 



Under the name B. enteritidis sporogenes, Klein 1 isolated a bacillus 

 similar to the B. Welchii from the evacuations of and from milk 

 consumed by, patients suffering from an epidemic diarrhoea which 

 occurred in St. Bartholomew's Hospital ; as did Andrewes, 2 from 

 cases of diarrhoea admitted into the same hospital. Klein believed 

 this organism to be the cause of the diarrhoea, and stated that it 

 could not be found in the intestinal evacuations of healthy 

 individuals. Klein also found it in water, sewage, manure, and 

 milk. The writer, however, showed that it could generally be 

 found in the normal dejecta also in road and laboratory dust and 

 frequently in milk, and the opinion he formed was that it was 

 probably a ubiquitous organism and had little to do with the 

 diarrhoea. 3 Glynn also found the organism to be very widely 

 distributed, and fed guinea-pigs with, and himself ingested, cultures 

 without result. 4 



The B. enteritidis sporogenes in its morphology, staining reaction, 

 and cultural characters is almost, if not quite, identical with the 

 preceding organism, the B. Welchii or B. aerogenes capsulatus of 

 Welch. The only point of difference between them is that the 

 former, according to Klein, is motile and flagellated, while the latter, 

 according to Welch, is non-motile and non-flagellated. Spores are 

 only formed in serum or gelatin, not on agar. It is abundantly 

 present in sewage and sewage -contaminated water (see Chap. XXI). 



The Clostridium butyricum of Botkin, an energetic butyric -acid- 

 forming anaerobic bacillus (p. 432), produces in milk changes 

 similar to those of the B. Welchii, but is non-pathogenic. 



Clinical Examination (Malignant (Edema and 

 B. Welchii) 



The character of the wound and discharge will probably give 

 some indication of the existence of infection with malignant oedema 

 or with B. Welchii. The tissues are softened, cedematous, and dis- 

 coloured, and soaked with a foul-smelling, sanguineous fluid, which 



1 Rep. Ned. Off. Loc. Gov. Board, 1895-96, p. 197 ; ibid. 1897-98. 

 p. 225. 



2 Ibid, for 1896-97, p. 225. 



3 Trans. Jenner Inst. Prev. Med., vol. ii, 1899, p. 70. 



4 Thomson Yates Lab. Rep., vol. iii, Pt. ii, 1901, p. 131. 



