478 PATHOGENIC MICROORGANISMS 



general hyperemia of the organs with much parenchymatous degenera- 

 tion and many minute hemorrhages. 



The baciUi have been found in the spleen after death/ but van 

 Ermengem does not believe that they are generally distributed during 

 the course of the disease. It is believed by most of those who have 

 studied this disease that poisoning in the human subject is due to the 

 toxins preformed in the infected meat by this bacillus. Experiments 

 have shown that little or no poison is produced by the bacilli after gain- 

 ing entrance to the human or animal body. 



The Toxin of B. botulinus. — Bacillus botulinus produces disease 

 chiefly by means of a strong soluble toxin secreted by it, and absorbed 

 by the infected subject. This toxin is active in animals and presumably 

 in man, not only when injected subcutaneously, but also when intro- 

 duced through the gastrointestinal canal. The poison has been par- 

 ticularly studied by Brieger and his collaborators. It is obtained in 

 filtrates of alkaline bouillon cultures. It has been precipitated out of 

 the filtrate by Brieger and Kempner ^ by means of a three per cent zinc 

 chlorid solution (2 volumes of 3 per cent ZnClj). The toxin thus 

 obtained was sufficiently powerful to kill a 250-gram guinea-pig in fifty 

 hours. 



Specific action of.the toxin for the nerve-cells of the spinal ganglia 

 has been shown by Marinesco.^ A specific antitoxin has been produced 

 by Kempner and Pollack.* 



■ Stricht, Quoted from van Ermengem, in Kolle und Wassermann. 



2 Brieger und Kempner, Deut. med. Woch., xxxiii, 1897. 



3 Marinesco, Compt. rend, de I'acad. des sci., Nov., 1896. 

 * Kempner und Pollack, Deut. med. Woch., xxxii, 1897. 



