BACILLACE^: THE SPOROGENIC ANAEROBES 289 



in cultures. The organism is a strict anaerobe. Its most striking 

 property is the enormously rapid production of gas in media con- 

 taining dextrose or lactose. Cultures are obtained most readily 

 by heating a suspension of feces to 80° C. for 15 minutes and in- 

 oculating it into glucose broth mixed with blood in a Smith fermen- 

 tation tube. After 24 to 48 hours incubation its presence will 

 usually be revealed by abundant production of gas. Milk is 

 coagulated and rendered acid with an abundant production of gas 

 (stormy fermentation). On blood-agar plates incubated in 

 hydrogen, the colony is round with regular outline and surrounded 

 by a cleai: zone of hemolysis. 



Emphysematous gangrene occurs in man as a rapidly extend- 

 ing, very fatal disease, due to the infection of wounds with this 

 organism. The presence of necrotic tissue seems to be necessary 

 in order that the organism may gain a foothold, but- when once 

 begun the inflammation may extend with great rapidity. The 

 gas found in bodies at autopsy is usually the result of an agonal 

 or a post-mortem invasion by the bacilli from the intestine. 



There are several other types of sporogenic anaerobes of the 

 same general nature as CI. edematis, CI. feseri, and CI. welchii, 

 which live normally in fertilized soil and in the intestines of 

 animals. The organisms of . this -group have assumed great 

 importance in modern warfare as the causes of anaerobic wound 

 infection, variously termed gaseous gangrene, gaseous edema or 

 toxic edema. The development of the disease depends to some 

 ex-tent upon the presence of foreign bodies or devitahzed or partly 

 disorganized tissue in a wound. It may appear early and run a 

 rapid course to death. Such cases are usually infected with CI. 

 perfringens. Late, more slowly progressing gaseous edema is 

 often due to a mixture of bacteria, including the Vibrion septique 

 or CI. oedematiens of Weinberg and Seguin or both of these. The 

 monograph^ of these authors should be consulted by those students 

 who are interested in the anaerobic infection of wounds. These 

 authors have made substantial progress in the production of 

 ' Weinberg et Seguin: La gangrene gaseuse, Masson et Cie, Paris, 1918. 



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