432 A MANUAL OF BACTERIOLOGY 



never forming long threads, is strictly anaerobic and motile, but 

 loses its motility in the presence of oxygen. Some of the rods are 

 cylindrical throughout, others form slender spindles, others are oval 

 or lemon-shaped. It stains with the ordinary anilin dyes but not 

 by Gram's method (except by Claudius's modification). Occasion- 

 ally in the tissues it seems to stain by Gram. The organism forms 

 endogenous spores, the spore-bearing rods being enlarged or club- 

 shaped, and therefore should be termed a " clostridium." 



It can be grown in deep stabs in gelatin and agar. Gelatin is 

 rapidly liquefied. In glucose -agar it forms a thick, irregular, 

 greyish growth, with much development of foul-smelling gas. The 

 writer has found extreme difficulty in isolating and in maintaining 

 cultures of the organism. The guinea-pig is susceptible if inoculated 

 subcutaneously or into the muscles, the bacilli being found at the 

 seat of inoculation, but not in the blood or internal organs. Artificial 

 immunity can be induced in various ways : by bacilli attenuated 

 by heat or by successive cultivations, or by heating the dried 

 muscle to 85 to 90 C. for six hours (Kitt), also by inoculating the 

 susceptible animal at the tip of the tail. Hanna, 1 by growing the 

 organism in a mixture of blood-plasma and broth, obtained toxins 

 which, by careful injection, conferred immunity on rabbits, the 

 animals after injection yielding an antitoxic serum. 



Hamilton has described specific anaerobic bacilli in braxy, 

 louping-ill, and other diseases of sheep and deer. 2 



Clostridium butyricum 



An anaerobic organism occurring in milk, in which it produces 

 a marked butyric acid fermentation with changes like those of the 

 B. Welchii. It forms short rods, and also long ones 3 to 10 ^ in 

 length, and filaments are met with. Spore -formation takes place 

 freely in enlarged segments. It forms a whitish growth on agar, 

 and gelatin is rapidly liquefied, a scum forming on the surface. It 

 is non-pathogenic (p. 430). 



1 Journ. Path, and Bact., vol. iv, 1897, p. 383. 



2 Rep. Louping-ill and Braxy Com., Board of Agriculture and 

 Fisheries. 1906. 



