Bacilli Resembling the Typhoid Bacillus 66i 



The colon bacillus has also been met with in puerperal fever, 

 Winckel's disease of the newborn,* endocarditis, meningitis, liver- 

 abscess, bronchopneumonia, pleuritis, chronic tonsillitis, urethritis, 

 and arthritis. 



An interesting summary of the pathogenic effect of Bacillus coli 

 can be found in Rolleston's paper in the "British Medical Journal" 

 for Nov. 4, 1911, p. 1186. 



In a certain number of cases general hemic infection may be caused 

 by Bacillus Coli. In 1909 Jacobf published an analysis of 39 such 

 cases, and in 1910 DraperJ increased the number to 43. Wiens§ 

 also reported 6 cases and Maher|| i case, so that the total now 

 stands 50. 



Virulence. — It is a question whether the colon bacillus is always 

 virulent, or whether it becomes so under abnormal conditions. 

 Klencki** found it very virulent in the ileum, and less so in the colon 

 and jejunum of dogs. He also found that the virulence was greatly 

 increased in a strangulated portion of intestine. Dreyfusff found 

 that the colon bacillus as it occurs in normal feces is not virulent. 

 Most experimenters believe that pathologic conditions, such as 

 disease of the intestine, strangulation of the intestine, etc., increase 

 its virulence. 



Frequent transplantation lessens the virulence of the bacillus; 

 passage through animals increases it. 



It has been observed that cultures of the bacillus, obtained from 

 iases of cholera, cholera nostras, and other intestinal diseases are 

 more pathogenic than those obtained from normal feces or from pus. 



For the laboratory animals the colon bacillus is pathogenic in 

 varying degree. Intraperitoneal injections into mice cause death 

 in from one to eight days if the culture be virulent. Guinea-pigs 

 and rabbits also succumb to intraperitoneal and intravenous in- 

 jection. Subcutaneous injections are of less effect, and in rabbits 

 produce abscesses only. 



When injected into the abdominal cavity; the bacilli set up a sero- 

 fibrinous or purulent peritonitis, and are numerous in the abdominal 

 fluids. 



Cumston,JJfrom a careful study of 13 cases of summer infantile 

 diarrheas, came to the conclusion that Bacillus coli seemed to be the 

 pathogenic agent of the greater number of cases. 



Lesage,§§ in studying the enteritis of infants, found that in 40 out 

 of 50 cases depending upon Bacillus coH the blood of the patient 



* "Kamen-Ziegler's Beitrage," 1896, 14. 



t "Deutsch. Archiv. f. Klin. Med.," 1909, xcvii, 303. 

 ■ i "Bull, of the Ayer Clin. Lab. of the Penna. Hosp.," 1910, No. 6, p. 21. 



§ "Munch, med. Woch.," 1909, lvi, 962. 



II "Med. Record," 1909, lxxv, 482. 

 4.« "Ann. de I'lnst. Pasteur," 1895, No. 9. 

 tt"Centralbl. f. Bakt.," etc., xvi, p. 581. 

 tt "International Medical Magazine," Feb., 1897. 

 §§ "La Semaine M^dicale," Oct. 20,, 1897. 



