Amebae and Suppuration 337 



Emmerling* in.so doing it gives o£E as cleavage products, trimethyl- 

 amine, betain, phenol and hydrogen sulphide. Taylorf found that 

 casein was transformed with deuteroalbumose, peptone, histidin, 

 lysin, tyrosin, indol and skatol as cleavage products. Ammonia is 

 liberally formed so that sugar-free cultures become alkaline. 



In bouillon containing sugars, dextrose and saccharose are fer- 

 mented with the evolution of H : CO2 = %, and the formation of 

 some lactic and formic acid. Lactose is untouched. Nitrates are 

 reduced to nitrites, and then partly reduced to ammonia. 



Pathogenesis. — ^It is a question whether or not Bacillus proteus 

 is to be ranked among the pathogenic bacteria. Small doses are 

 harmless for the laboratory animals; large doses produce abscesses. 

 A toxic substance resulting from the metaboHsm of the organism 

 seems to be the cause of death when considerable quantities of a cul- 

 ture are injected into the peritoneal cavity or blood-vessels. The 

 bacilli do not seem able to multiply in the healthy animal body, but 

 can do so when previous disease or injury of its tissues has taken place. 

 . The proteus has been secured in cultures from wound and puerperal 

 infections, purulent peritonitis, endometritis, and pleurisy. When 

 the local lesion is hmited, as in endometritis, the danger of toxemia 

 is slight; but when widespread, as the peritoneum, it may prove 

 serious. Bacillus proteus has also been found in acute infectious 

 jaundice and in acute febrile icterus, or Weil's disease. TsiklinskyJ 

 in studying the diarrheas of nursing infants found Bacillus proteus 

 vulgaris in 65 per cent, and believed it to be the important patho- 

 genic agent concerned in the etiology of the trouble. 



Bordoni-Uffreduzzi has shown that the proteus quite regularly 

 mvades the tissues after death, though it appears unable to main- 

 tain an independent existence in the tissues during life, and is 

 probably of importance only when present in association with other 

 bacteria. It at times grows abundantly in the urine, and may pro- 

 duce primary inflammation of the bladder. The inflammatory 

 process may also extend from the bladder to the kidney, and so 

 prove quite serious. 



Epidemics of meat-poisoning have been thought to depend upon 

 Bacillus proteus. One of them was studied by Wesenberg,§ who 

 cultivated the organism from the putrid meat by which 63 persons 

 were made ill. Silverschmidt|| and Pfuhl** have made similar in- 

 vestigations with similar results. 



Am^bm and Suppxiration 



The process of suppuration is not confined to bacterial micro- 

 organisms, but is shared to a hmited extent by the protozoa. Thus, 



* "Berliner Chemische Gesellschaft," 1896, p. 2711. 

 fZeitschrift f. Phys. Chem., 1902, xxxvi. 

 t "Ann. de rinst. Pasteur,", 1917, XXXI, p. 517- 

 § "Zeitschrift fur Hygiene," etc., 1898, xxvm. 

 II Ibid., 1899, xxx. ** Ibid., 1900, xxxv. 



