BACILLI BETWEEN TYPHOID AND COLON ORGANISMS 429 



typhosus on the one hand, and from Bacillus coli on the other, by the 

 following simple reactions tabulated by Buxton. ^ 



Coagulation of milk 



Production of indol 



Fermentation of lactose with gas 



Fennentation of dextrose with gas 



Agglutination in typhoid-immune serum . 



B. coli. 



+ 



+ 

 + 

 + 



Intermediates. 



B. typhosus. 



The characteristics of the three groups as shown by fermentation tests 

 may be tabulated as foUows: 



Pathogenically, the bacilli of this " intermediate group " have attracted 

 attention chiefly in connection with meat poisoning, and with protracted 

 fevers indistinguishable from mild typhoidal infections. 



In 1888, Gartner ^ described a bacillus which he isolated from the 

 meat of a cow, the ingestion of which had produced the symptoms of 

 acute gastrointestinal catarrh in fifty-seven people. One of these died 

 of the disease and the bacilli could be demonstrated in the spleen and in 

 the blood of the patient. 



This bacillus, called Bacillus enteritidis by Gartner, was actively 

 motile, formed no indol, but produced gas in dextrose media. Acute 

 gastrointestinal symptoms could be induced by feeding the organisms 

 to mice, guinea-pigs, rabbits, and sheep, and the bacilh could be re- 

 covered from the infected animals. An interesting observation, which 

 has since become important in characterizing the group of these bacilli 

 concerned in meat poisoning, was the fact that the bacterial bodies 

 themselves were found by Gartner to be extremely toxic, containing a 

 poison which, in contradistinction to the endotoxins of many other 

 microorganisms, was extremely resistant to heat. Sterilized cultures 

 showed the same pathogenic effects as the living bacilli. Epidemics 



1 Buxton, loc, cit. ' Oartner, Corresp. BI. d. Aerzt. Vereins, Turingen, 1888. 



