° 
PATHOGENIC SPIRILLA. 603 
Biological Characters.—An aérobic and facultative anaérobic, liquefy- 
ing, motile spirillum. Spore formation not demonstrated. Grows in the 
usual culture media at the room temperature. Upon gelatin plates small, 
white, punctiform colonies are developed at the end of twenty four hours, 
which under the microscope are seen to be finely granular and yellowish or 
yellowish-brown in color; liquefaction of the gelatin around these colonies 
progresses rapidly, and at the end of forty-eight hours is usually complete in 
plates where they are numerous. Isolated colonies on the second day form 
saucer-shaped depressions in the gelatin the size of lentils, having a sharply 
defined border. In gelatin stab cultures liquefaction progresses much more 
rapidly than in similar cultures of the cholera spirillum, and a stocking- 
shaped pouch of liquefied gelatin is already seen on th second day, which 
rapidly increases in dimensions, so that by the end of a week the gelatin is 
usually completely liquefied; upon the surface of the liquefied medium a 
whitish film is seen. Upon agara moist, slimy layer, covering the entire 
surface, is quickly developed. The growth in blood serum is rapid and 
causes liquefaction of the medium. Upon potato this spiriilum grows at the 
room temperature and produces a slimy, grayish-yellow, glistening layer, 
which soon extends over the entire surface. The cholera spirillum does not 
grow upon potato at the room temperature. The cultures of the Finkler- 
Prior spirillum give off a tolerably strong putrefactive odor, and, according 
to Buchner, in media containing sugar an acid reaction is produced as a re- 
sult of their development. They lhuvea greater resistance tu desiccation than 
the cholera spirillum. 
Pathogenesis.—Pathogenic for guinea-pigs when injected into the 
stomach by Koch’s method, after previous injection of a solution of car- 
bonate of soda, but a smaller proportion of the animals die from such injec- 
tions (Koch). At the autopsy the intestine is pale, and its watery contents, 
oa contain the spirilla in great numbers, have a penetrating, putrefactive 
odor. 
SPIRILLUM TYROGENUM. 
Synonyms —Spirillum of Deneke; Kasespirillen. 
Obtained by Deneke (1885) from old cheese. 
Morphology.—Curved rods and long, spiral filaments resembling the 
spirilla of Asiatic cholera. The diameter of the curved segments is some- 
what less than that of the cholera spirillum, and the turns in the spiral fila- 
ments are lower and closer together. The diame- 
ter of the “‘commas” is uniform throughout, so = - . 
that this spirillum more closely resembles the s* _.  --> 
cholera spirillum than does that of Finklerand = _- at, Pe =; 
Prior. =) Weve 
Stains with the usual aniline colors—best SS ar ge a 3 
with an aqueous solution of fuchsin. aaa 9 = = hh 
Biological Characters.—An aérobic and fac- ‘ m~tw 
ultative anaérobie, iquefying, motile spirillum. Pcie 
Spore formation not demoustrated. Grows in 
the usual culture media at the room temperature Fie. 183.—Spirillum tyroge- 
—more rapidly than the cholera spirillum and num. x 700. (Fligge. 
less so than that of Finkler and Prior. Upon 
gelatin plates small, punctiform colonies are developed, which on the second 
day are about the size of a pin’s head and have a yellowish color; under 
the microscope they are seen to be coarsely granular, of a yellowish-green 
color in the centre and paler towards the margins. The outlines of the colo- 
nies are sharply defined at first, but later, when liquefaction has commenced, 
the sharp contour is no longer seen. At first liquefaction of the gelatin 
causes funnel-shaped cavities resembling those formed by the cholera spiril- 
lum, but liquefaction is more rapid. In gelatin stab cultures liquefaction 
occurs all along the line of puncture, and the spirilla sink to the bottom of 
