FAMILY ENTEROBACTERIACEAE 



487 



1 Aufl., 2, 1896, 243; Bacillus pruteus 

 vulgaris Kruse, in Flligge, Die Mikro- 

 organismen, 2, 1896, 272; Bacterium 

 (Proteus) vulgaris Chester, Ann. Rept. 

 Del. Col. Agr. Exp. Sta., 9, 1897, 101; 

 Bacillus vulgaris ]Migula, Syst. d. Bakt., 

 2, 1900, 707; Bacterium proteus anin- 

 dologenes van Loghem, Ann. Inst. Past., 

 32, 1918, 295; Bacillus proteus-vulgaris 

 Holland, Jour. Bact., 5, 1920, 220.) From 

 Latin, common. 



Hauser described Proteus vulgaris as a 

 rapid gelatin liquefier and Proteus mirabi- 

 lis as a slow liquefier. VVenner and 

 Rettger (Jour. Bact., 4, 1919, 332) found 

 the property of liquefying gelatin too 

 variable to serve as a basis for separation 

 of species. They suggested that this 

 differentiating character be set aside and 

 the two species differentiated on the 

 basis of maltose fermentation, the species 

 fermenting the sugar receiving the name 

 Proteus vulgaris and the species failing 

 to attack it, Proteus mirabilis. This 

 suggestion was accepted by Bergey et al.. 

 Manual, 1st ed., 1923 and Weldin, Iowa 

 Jour. Sci., 1, 1927, 147; and their work 

 was confirmed by Rustigian and Stuart 

 (Jour. Bact., 43, 1943, 198) and by Thorn- 

 ton (Jour. Bact., 48, 1944, 123). Also 

 see Moltke (Contributions to the Char- 

 acterization and Systematic Classification 

 of Bac. proteus vulgaris (Hauser), Levin 

 and Munksgaard, Copenhagen, 1927, 

 156). 



Rods: 0.5 to 1.0 by 1.0 to 3.0 microns, 

 occurring singly, in pairs and frequentlj- 

 in long chains. Actively motile, with 

 peritrichous flagella. Gram-negative. 



Gelatin colonies : Irregular, spreading., 

 rapidly liquefying. 



Gelatin stab: Rapid, stratiform lique- 

 faction. 



Agar colonies : Opaque, graj', spreading. 



Agar slant : Thin, bluish-gray, spread- 

 ing over entire surface. 



Broth: Marked turbidity, usually with 

 a thin pellicle. 



Litmus milk: Slightly acid, becoming 



markedly alkaline. Quick peptoniza- 

 tion. 



Potato: Abundant, creamy to yellow- 

 ish-gray growth, becoming brown. 



Indole formed. 



Nitrites produced from nitrates. 



Acetylmethylcarbinol not formed. 



Acid and gas from glucose, fructose, 

 galactose, maltose and sucrose. Xo acid 

 or gas from dextrin, lactose or mannitol. 

 See Moltke (loc. cit.) for other fermenta- 

 tion characters. Ratio Ho to CO2 is 

 1:1 (Speck and Stark, Jour. Bact., 44, 

 1942, 687). 



Putrefactive odor produced. 



Sodium citrate usually utilized as sole 

 source of carbon. 



Formation of H2S : Produced from 

 cysteine, cystine or organic sulfur com- 

 pounds containing either of these mole- 

 cules. Produced from sulfur and thio- 

 sulfates (Tarr, Biochem. Jour., 27, 1933, 

 1869; 28, 1934, 192). Lead acetate 

 turned brown. 



Aerobic, facultative. 



Optimum temperature 37 °C. 



Distinctive characters: X-Strains of 

 Weil and Felix. Lehmann-X'eumann- 

 Breed, Determinative Bact., Eng. Trans., 

 7th ed., 2, 1931, 493: "The discovery of 

 proteus strains which may be aggluti- 

 nated by tj'phus serum is of very great 

 importance. These are the so-called 

 X-strains from typhus patients found by 

 Weil and Felix. Thej^ first cultivated 

 strains X and X2 from the urine of typhus 

 patients and later the famous X19. The 

 two former were agglutinated weakly, the 

 latter strongly (up to 1:50,000). The 

 diagnosis of tj-phus bj' agglutination with 

 strain X19 proved to be excellent and the 

 reaction took place in the serum of almost 

 100 per cent of those suffering from the 

 disease. . . . The typhus strains of pro- 

 teus have recently been divided into the 

 two types of Felix and Weil, the H forms 

 and the O forms. The former grows as a 

 thin opaque film, the latter lacks this 

 character and grows as non-spreading 

 slimy colonies; frequently without dis- 



