394 BACILLUS BOTULINUS 



Gaertner to one class of case has already been discussed. Another 

 group was shown by van Ermengem in 1896 to be caused by an 

 anaerobic bacillus to which he gave the name bacillus botulinus. 

 He cultivated the organism from a sample of ham, the ingestion 

 of which in the raw condition had produced a number >of cases 

 of poisoning, some of them followed by fatal result. The 

 symptoms in these cases closely corresponded with those occur- 

 ring in the so-called " sausage poisoning " met with from time to 

 time in Germany and other countries where sausages and ham 

 are eaten in an imperfectly cooked condition. Such cases form 

 a fairly well-defined group, the symptoms in which are chiefly 

 referable to an action on the medulla, and, as will be detailed 

 below, similar symptoms have been experimentally produced 

 by means of the bacillus mentioned or its toxins. The chief 

 symptoms of this variety of botulismus, as detailed by van 

 Ermengem, are disordered secretion in the mouth and nose, more 

 or less marked ophthalmoplegia, externa and interna (dilated 

 pupil, ptosis, etc.), dysphagia, and sometimes aphagia with 

 aphonia, marked constipation and retention of urine, and in 

 fatal cases interference with the cardiac and respiratory centres. 

 Along with these there is practically no fever and no interference 

 with the intellectual faculties. The symptoms commence at 

 earliest twelve to twenty-four hours after ingestion of the poison. 

 From the ham in question, which was not decomposed in the 

 ordinary sense, van Ermengem obtained numerous colonies of this 

 bacillus, the leading characters of which are given below. It may 

 be added that Romer obtained practically the same results as van 

 Ermengem in a similar condition, and that the bacillus botulinus 

 has been cultivated by Kempner from the intestine of the pig. 



Microscopical and Cultural Characters. The organism is a 

 bacillus of considerable size, measuring 4 to 9 />t in length and 

 *9 to 1*2 //, in thickness; it has somewhat rounded ends and 

 sometimes is seen in a spindle form. It is often arranged in 

 pairs, sometimes in short threads. Under certain conditions it 

 forms spores which are oval in shape, usually terminal in position, 

 and a little thicker than the bacilli. It is a motile organism 

 and has 4 to 8 lateral flagella of wavy form. It stains readily 

 with the ordinary dyes, and also retains the colour in Gram's 

 method, though care must be employed in decolorising. 



The organism can be readily cultivated on the ordinary 

 media, but only under strictly anaerobic conditions. In glucose 

 gelatin a whitish line of growth forms with lateral offshoots, 

 but liquefaction with abundant gas formation soon occurs. In 

 gelatin plates the colonies after four to six days are somewhat 



