PATHOGENIC BACTERIA. 389 



the manite-fermentcrs on the other. Among the manite- 

 fermenters, of which bacillus "Y" of Hiss and Russell and 

 the Flexner-Manila bacillus are the type, there is great varia- 

 tion in cultural properties, but have this in common that they 

 all produce the same change in litmus-milk. Flexner suggests 

 that these organisms may be occasionally or constantly 

 present in the normal intestines. Duval found them in the 

 intestinal contents of children suffering from mild summer 

 diarrhea. On the other hand the Shiga-Kruse type from 

 some twenty different sources all reacted alike in the various 

 culture-media and all agglutinated alike with various sera. 

 According to W. H. Park, some of the manite-fermenters form 

 indol which the bacillus of Shiga does not; they also differ 

 from it in their agglutination reactions.* 



While it seems probable that the Shiga bacillus, and its 

 congeners cause certain forms of dysentery, Jiirgeus states that 

 there is evidence to show that there are epidemics of dysentery 

 which are caused by organisms which can scarcely be identified 

 with them.f 



It must also be borne in mind that epidemics of dysentery 

 occur mainly, though not exclusively, in tropical countries 

 which are caused by amebae (see page 430). 



Bacillus Pseudodysentericus. — MuUert gave the name B. pseudodysenter- 

 icus to a type of organisms bearing all the cultural characteristics and patho- 

 genic properties for experiment animals which are shown by B. dysenteriae, and 

 differing from this organism or group of organisms in one respect only; that is in 

 the failure to agglutinate with blood-serum of persons suffering with dysentery. 

 While stating that this classification of the organism is purely arbitrary and 



*Shiga. Centralblatt jur Bakteriologie. Bd. XXIV. iSgS. Flexner. 

 Philadelphia Medical Journal. September i, igoo. Vedder and Duval. 

 Journal Experimental Medicine. Vol. VI. Gay. University of Pennsylvania 

 Medical Bulletin. November, 1902. Duval and Bassett. American Medicine. 

 Vol. IV. p. 417. 1902. Park and Carey. Journal Medical Research 

 Vol. IX. 1903. Strong and Musgrove. Journal American Medical Associa- 

 tion. Vol. XXXV., p. 498. 1900. 



tjiirgens. Deutsche Med. Wochenschr. XXIX., No. 47. p. T713. 



JFord. The classification and distribution of the intestinal bacteria in man. 

 Studies from Rockefeller Institute. Vol. II. 1904. pp. 1-95. 



