544 PATHOGENIC AEROBIC BACILLI 
one cubic centimetre or more of a culture in bouillon—usually cause 
the death of the animal in from twelve to thirty-six hours. An ex- 
tensive inflammatory cedema and purulent infiltration of the tissues 
result from subcutaneous inoculations, and a sero-fibrinous or puru- 
lent peritonitis is induced by the introduction of the bacillus into the 
peritoneal cavity. The bacillus is found in the serous or purulent 
fluid in the subcutaneous tissues or abdominal cavity, and also in the 
blood and various organs, from which it can be recovered in pure 
cultures, although not present in great numbers, as is the case in 
the various forms of septiczemia heretofore described. When smaller 
amounts are injected subcutaneously the animal usually recovers 
after the formation of a local abscess, and it is subsequently immune 
when inoculated with doses which would be fatal to an unprotected 
animal. Immunity may also be secured by the injection of a con- 
siderable quantity of a sterilized culture. Bouchard has also pro- 
duced immunity in rabbits by injecting into them the filtered urine 
of other rabbits which had been inoculated with a virulent culture of 
the bacillus. It has been shown by Bouchard, and by Charrin and 
Guignard, that in rabbits which have been inoculated with a culture 
of the anthrax bacillus a fatal result may be prevented by soon after 
inoculating the same animals with a pure culture of the Bacillus 
pyocyaneus. The experiments of Woodhead and Wood indicate that 
the antidotal effect is due to chemical products of the growth of the 
bacillus, and not to an antagonism of the living bacterial cells. They 
were able to obtain similar results by the injection of sterilized cul- 
tures of Bacillus pyocyaneus, made soon after infection with the 
anthrax bacillus. 
Schimmelbusch (1894) reports that in researches made by Mih- 
sam this bacillus was found in the axilla, the anal region, or the in- 
guinal fold in fifty per cent of the healthy individuals examined. 
Its presence in wounds greatly delays the process of repair and may 
give rise to a general depression of the vital powers from the ab- 
sorption of its toxic products. Schimmelbush states that a physician 
injected 0.5 cubic centimetre of sterilized (by heat) culture into his 
forearm. That as a result of this injection, after a few hours he had 
a slight chill, followed by fever, which at the end of twelve hours 
reached 38.8° ; an erysipelatous-like swelling of the forearm oc- 
curred, and the glands in the axilla were swollen and painful. Re- 
covery occurred without the formation of an abscess. Buchner has 
related a similar case. 
Krannhals (1894) refers to seven cases in which a general pyocy- 
aneus infection in man was found, and adds an eighth from his own 
experience. In this the Bacillus pyocyaneus was obtained, post mor- 
