94 BACTERIAL POISONS OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 



in the intestines, and the germicidal properties of the blood have 

 been unquestionably demonstrated. 



5. The proper classification of bacteria in regard to their relation 

 to disease can not be made from their morphology alone, but must 

 depend largely upon the products of their growth. As has been 

 stated, three microorganisms, differing sufficiently to be recognized 

 as of different species, produce poisons, all of which induce vomiting 

 and purging, and when used in sufficient quantity, death. Morpho- 

 logically these bacilli may not be closely related, but physiologically 

 they are near akin. If these deductions be true, we will avoid the 

 introduction into the alimentary canal, not only of the specific patho- 

 genic germs, but of all toxicogenic microorganisms. 



Baginsky and Stadthagen obtained from cultures of the " white 

 liquefying bacterium " of the former a poisonous proteid which pro- 

 duces in mice, after about five hours, slight dyspnoea, the coat be- 

 comes rough, the animal sits with drooping head, and when forced 

 to move does so sluggishly but without any evidence of paralysis. 

 The marked apathy increases, and death results after two or three 

 days. Section shows an infiltration about the place of injection, 

 congestion of the spleen, liver and peritoneum. The intestine is 

 hyperemic throughout its entire length, and its upper portion con- 

 tains a reddish-brown fluid. They also obtained from the same 

 cultures a poisonous ptomain, which is probably identical with 

 one found by Brieger in putrid horse flesh, and has the formula 



That tyrotoxicon is one of the causes of the violent choleraic diar- 

 rhoea of children there can scarcely be a doubt. The symptoms in- 

 duced by the poison cannot be distinguished from those induced by 

 the disease. The post-mortem appearances are very much alike, it 

 not identical, and the poison has been found in milk, a part of which 

 had been given to a child not more than two hours before the first 

 symptom of a violent attack of the disease made itself manifest ; but 

 tyrotoxicon is not so frequently found in milk as was at one time 

 supposed. 



Fliigge has studied milk bacteria with special reference to their 

 toxicogenic properties. In market milk he has frequently found 

 four anaerobic bacilli, two of which produce poisons. The subcuta- 

 neous injection of filtered cultures of one of these in doses of from 

 0.3 to 0.6 c.c. in mice caused death after from three to fifteen hours, 

 and section showed marked hyperemia of the intestines and trans- 

 udates in the peritoneal and pleural cavities. The intra-abdominal 

 injection of five c.c. of this culture killed guinea-pigs within from 

 fifteen to twenty-four hours, and in these also the intestines were 

 found to be engorged and the abdominal cavity filled with a serous 

 transudate. The second toxicogenic, anaerobic bacillus develops a 

 most disagreeable odor in milk, and consequently it is not likely 



