438 BACILLUS BOTULINUS 



in a mouse will soon give rise to the characteristic symptoms, if tetanus 

 bacilli are present. With suspicious organisms isolated by culture it is 

 well to use the splinter method (p. 428), as some strains of the b. tetani 

 tend to produce little -toxin in artificial media, and may be injected 

 without causing tetanic symptoms. 



Bacillus Botulinus. 



The term "meat-poisoning" embraces a number of conditions 

 produced by different agents, and the bacilli related to one class 

 of case have already been discussed (p. 380). Another group 

 was shown by van Ermengem in 1896 to be caused by an aaae^ 

 robic bacillus to which he gave the name bacillus botulinus. He 

 cultivated the organism from a sample of ham, the ingestion 

 of which in the raw condition had produced a number of cases 

 of poisoning, some of them followed by fatal result v The 

 symptoms in these cases closely corresponded with those occur- 

 ring in the so-called "sausage poisoning." Such cases form 

 a fairly well-defined group, the symptoms in which are chiefly 

 referable to an action on the medulla, and, as will be detailed 

 below, similar symptoms have been experimentally produced by 

 means of the bacillus mentioned or its toxins. The chief 

 symptoms of this variety of botulismus, as detailed by van 

 Ermengem, are disordered secretion in the mouth and nose; 

 more or less marked ophthalmoplegia, externa and interna (dilated 

 pupil, ptosis, etc.), dysphagia, and sometimes aphagia with 

 aphonia, marked constipation and retention of urine, and in 

 fatal cases interference with the cardiac and respiratory centres. 

 Along with these there is practically no fever and no interference 

 with the intellectual faculties. The symptoms commence at 

 earliest twelve to twenty-four hours after ingestion of the poison. 

 From the ham in question, which was not decomposed in the 

 ordinary sense, van Ermengem obtained numerous colonies of 

 this bacillus, the leading characters of which are given below. 

 It may be added that Komer obtained practically the same 

 results as van Ermengem in a similar condition, and that the 

 bacillus botulinus has been cultivated by Kempner from the 

 intestine of the pig. In the summer of 1918 cases of botulismus 

 were said to have occurred in Great Britain. So far as we are 

 aware, however, the b. botulinus was never isolated. (See 

 Appendix, Acute Poliomyelitis.) 



Microscopical and Cultural Characters. — The organism is a 

 bacillus of considerable size, measuring 4 to 9 ft, in length and 

 •9 to 1 "2 /i in thickness ; it has somewhat rounded ends .and 

 sometimes is seen in a spindle form. It is often arranged in 



