216 



WHITMORE. 



dysentery bacillus and tested the agglutinating power of the different specific 

 sera on the various strains. They also made a careful study of the morphology 

 and cultural properties of the latter. They began by attempting to immunize 

 rabbits and guinea pigs to seven strains, but so many animals died that they 

 abandoned this method. Rabbits resisted one strain of the Flexner organism, 

 and a good serum was obtained. Martini and Lentz then immunized a goat to 

 the strain "Shiga," and prepared a very active serum. 



They were able to show from the agglutination reactions with these sera 

 that the Shiga, Kruse, and eight other strains were identical (Group I), while 

 the Flexner and Strong strains from the Philippines differed from the latter 

 ( Group II ) . It Avas further proved that one of Strong's strains differed from the 

 Flexner in its agglutinability, although Martini and Lentz do not seem to have 

 made it into a separate group at that time, but left it with the Flexner, pseudo- 

 dysentery (Kruse), and several others, all of which were different from the Shiga 

 and Kruse types. 



Hiss and Russell (6) described a bacillus which they isolated from a fatal 

 case of diarrhcea in a child. They called this organism "Bacillus dysenterioe Y" 

 and it soon was shown that the bacillus of asylum dysentery was identical with 

 this variety. 



It does not appear that Martini and Lentz tested the agglutinability of 

 bacillus Y to their "Flexner" serum, although they seem to have had it in their 

 series (Pseudodysentery Kruse) and found that it did not agglutinate with their 

 Shiga serum. Since we know now that the serum from the Flexner organism 

 often agglutinates Bacillus Y in as high dilution as it does the Flexner, it would 

 have been interesting to have studied this question. 



Hiss and Russell differentiated their Bacillus Y from the Shiga bacillus by 

 means of mannite- and maltose-litmus agar, and almost at the same time Lentz (7) 

 used these same media for the differentiation of dysentery and dysentery-like 

 bacilli. He worked with the strains Avhich Martini and Lentz had used in their 

 agglutination experiments. By means of the sugar media, he was able to show 

 that one of Strong's strains was different from that of Shiga and Flexner, while 

 the two latter were also proved to be different from each other by their behavior in 

 the sugar media. This corresponded to the finding of Martini and l^ntz, as a 

 result of their studies of the agglutination reactions of the same three strains. 



This brief review of the literature shows that the dysentery bacillus 

 had been divided into four groups by the use of sugar media an.d that 

 three of these groups were also distinct in their agglutinability. 



The following table gives the cultural differences in sugar media that 



are relied upon for isolation of the dysentery bacillus and to separate it 



into types : 



Gultural differences in sugar media. 



Litmus agar with addition of — 



Appearance in culture of bacillus. 



Shiga- 

 Kruse. 



Y. 



Flexner. 



strong. 



Lactose 



Blue. 

 Red. 

 Blue. 

 Blue. 

 Blue. 



Blue. 

 Red. 

 Red. 

 ,Blue. 

 Blue. 



Blue. 

 Red. 

 Red. 

 Red, 

 Blue. 



Blue. 

 Red. 

 Red. 

 Blue. 

 Red. 



Dextrose _ - 



Mannite _ 



Maltose 







