THE DYSENTERY BACILLUS WITH A BACTERIOLOGIC 



STUDY OF AN EPIDEMIC OF BACILLARY 



DYSENTERY IN THE PHILIPPINES. 



By Eugene R. Whitmore.^ 

 [From the Biological Laboratory, Bureau of Science, Manila, P. I.) 



Shiga, (1) in 1908, armounced ijhat he had cultivated a special bacilkis 

 from the stools of dysentery patients and considered this bacillus to be 

 the specific cause of bacillai*y dysentery. Since that time much atten- 

 tion has been given to the study of bacteria in the stools of patients 

 suffering from dysentery. 



In 1900, Flexner(2) and Strong(3) described a similar or identical bacillus 

 in the stools of dysentery patients in Manila and almost at the same time 

 Kruse(4) gave an account of a simihir one in the same class of material in 

 Germany. He rightly described the bacillus as non-flagellated, while Shiga called 

 it a motile bacilhis with fiagella. From this time on the number of observations 

 on the bacteria found in the stools of patients suffering with diarrhoea and dysen- 

 tery increased very rapidly, and very soon workers began to note that there 

 were diflFerences between the bacteria isolated in various places, and between 

 the bacteria isolated from diff'erent cases in the same place. Kruse .considered, 

 his bacilhis to be diff'erent from the Shiga-Flexner organism - because it was non- 

 motile and without flagella. 



Koch suggested that a commission should compare the various strains of the 

 dysentery bacillus isolated by different men. This was done, and the Shiga, 

 Flexner, Kruse, and two Doberitz strains were found to be morphologically and 

 culturally alike. None of them bore flagella, while all of them showed a marked 

 oscillating molecular motion. However, the Flexner strain did not agglutinate 

 as strongly with the serum of a convalescent patient in the Doberitz epidemic 

 as did the others. 



Several observers, following this work, described dysentery-like bacilli which 

 were found in various dysenteric conditions, especially in asylum dysentery. 

 These organisms resembled the true bacilli of dysentery in cultures and in 

 hanging drops, and they were agglutinated in as high dilutions of the serum of 

 convalescent dysentery patients as were the true dysentery strains. However, 

 staining showed them to have flagella, and further growth on different culture 

 media proved them to be different from the true dj'sentery bacilli. From this 

 it was evident that the serum of convalescent dysentery patients could not be 

 used for the differentiation of dysentery and dysentery-like bacilli. 



Martini and Lentz(5) immunized animals to two different strains of the 



^ Major, Medical Corps, United States Army; detailed to the Biological Labo- 

 ratory, Bureau of Science, Llanila, P. I. 



^ Flexner described his organism as a motile bacillus with flagella, while Strong 

 was not able to demonstrate flagella. 



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