KBEOTOXISMUS. 207 



produced illness and death, they were found to have lost their power 

 of infecting animals, and no growth of the bacillus was obtainable. 

 In meat which had poisoned a large number of persons, Gaertner 

 found his bacillus enteritidis. The meat was from a cow that had a 

 severe diarrhoea for two days before she was killed. The twelve 

 persons who ate of the flesh raw, all became sick ; while of those 

 who ate of the cooked food a large per cent, were also affected. In 

 the meat, and in the spleen of a person who died from the effects of 

 the poison, Gaertner found the bacillus which proved fatal to animals. 

 Good beef, inoculated with this germ and kept for some hours, killed 

 rabbits, guinea-pigs and mice. The skin of the people who were 

 poisoned and recovered peeled off. The period of incubation varied 

 from two to thirty hours. Even the boiled bouillon cultures of this 

 germ are highly poisonous, showing that the toxic properties are not 

 destroyed by cooking the meat. Fischer reports the following : A 

 cow, that had recently calved, had been sick for some eight days, and 

 on account of this illness she was killed. The animal was slaughtered 

 on Friday, and on the following Sunday at noon nineteen persons 

 ate of the meat. The prominent symptoms were vomiting and violent 

 purging, appearing a few hours after the meal. Vertigo, loss of con- 

 sciousness, and exfoliation of the epidermis during recovery, all of 

 which were observed by Gaertner in some of his cases, were not 

 present in any case reported by Fischer. Notwithstanding these 

 differences, a study of the bacillus led to the conclusion that it is 

 identical with the bacillus enteritidis. By concentrating a filtered 

 culture and precipitating with absolute alcohol, the crude toxin was 

 obtained. It gave the general reactions for peptons, and boiling 

 for one and one-half hours did not perceptibly weaken its toxic prop- 

 erties. Lubarsch reported the death of a child two days old from a 

 septic pneumonia caused by the bacillus enteritidis. Section showed 

 pleuritis and pneumonia of the left lower lobe, bilateral purulent 

 bronchitis, atalectasis of the right lung, parenchymatous cloudiness 

 of the kidneys, fatty infiltration and engorgement of the liver, slightly 

 enlarged spleen, uric acid infarction of the kidneys, and icterus neo- 

 natorum. All other pathological conditions were supposed to be 

 consequent upon the septic pneumonia. White rats and chickens 

 proved to be wholly immune, while guinea-pigs, rabbits, and mice 

 were susceptible to the bacillus found in the tissues of the child. 

 These susceptible animals were killed within from sixteen to twenty- 

 four hours by intraperitoneal inoculation and in from two to four days 

 by subcutaneous injections. In all cases, section showed marked 

 congestion of the intestines, swelling of the follicles, and in some 

 instances slight erosions of the mucous membrane. After intraperi- 

 toneal inoculation, sero-fibrinous or hemorrhagic peritonitis de- 

 veloped. After subcutaneous inoculation in rabbits, sometimes in 

 guinea-pigs, there was a sero-fibrinous pleuritis, with compression of 



