Morphology 



333 



perfringens of Veillon and Zuber,* and Besson describes it under 

 this name. Pending final decision upon the identity of these organ- 

 isms, it is here called by the name originally given it by Welch 

 who first secured it from the body of a man dying suddenly of 

 aortic aneurysm with a peculiar gaseous emphysema of the sub- 

 cutaneous tissues and internal organs, and a copious formation of 

 gas in the blood-vessels. The blood was thin and watery, of a lac 

 color, and contained many large and small gas bubbles, and many 

 bacilli, which ,were also obtained from it and the various organs, 

 especially in the neighborhood of the gas bubbles, in nearly pure 

 culture. The coloring-matter of the blood was dissolved out of the 

 corpuscles and stained the tissues a deep red. 



• Distribution. — It is believed that the natural habitat of the bacillus 

 is the soil, but there is reason to think that it commonly occurs in the 

 intestine, and may occasionally be found upon the skin. 



Fig. ng. — Bacillus aerogenes capsulatus (from photograph by 

 Prof. Simon Flexner). 



Morphology. — The bacillus is a large organism, measuring 3-5 ft 

 in length, about the thickness of the anthrax bacillus, with ends 

 slightly rounded, or, when joined, square. It occurs chiefly in pairs 

 and in irregular groups, but may also occur in chains. In culture 

 media it is usually straight, with slightly rounded ends. In old 

 cultures the rods may be slightly bent, and involution forms occur. 

 The bacillus varies somewhat in size, especially in length, in different 

 culture-media. It usually appears thicker and more variable in 

 length in artificial cultures than in the blood of animals. 



The bacillus is not motile and has no flagella. 



Dunham t found that spores were produced upon blood-serum, and 

 especially upon Lofiler's blood-serum bouillon mixture. The spores 



* Archiv de mM. exp6r. et d'anat. path., 1898, x, 517. 



t "Bull, of the Johns Hopkins Hospital," April, 1897, p. 68. 



