1880.] Dr. G. Thin. On Bacterium foetidum. 



473 



II. " On Bacterium foetidum : an Organism associated with 

 Profuse Sweating from the Soles of the Feet." By G-EORGE 

 Thin, M.D. Communicated by Professor Huxley, Sec. R.S. 

 Received May 12, 1880.* 



[Plate 6.] 



The feet of certain individuals are characterised by a peculiar 

 powerful and foetid odour. This odour, although it is usually believed 

 to be connected with the sweat from the feet, is really connected with 

 the moisture that soaks the soles of the stockings and the inside of 

 the boots. The moisture, which comes from the skin of the soles, espe- 

 cially from that of the heels, has no offensive smell whilst it is 

 exuding, but ifc rapidly acquires the characteristic odour when taken 

 up by the stocking. 



The fluid is not pure sweat, but is an admixture of sweat with 

 serous exudation from the blood. This admixture occurs in persons 

 whose feet sweat profusely, and who, from much standing or walking, 

 acquire an erythematous or eczematous condition of the skin of the 

 soles, the local erythema or eczema being favoured by the softening 

 and macerating effect of the sweat on the epidermis. That the fluid 

 is not sweat is shown by its reaction. In the case which furnished me 

 with an opportunity for investigation the reaction with litmus paper 

 applied to the wet heel was very faintly alkaline, the fluid in the 

 stockings and on the inner surface of the sole of the boot being more 

 decidedly, but still faintly, alkaline. At the same time the sweat on 

 other parts of the body was acid. 



When a small portion of the sole of the wet stocking was teased 

 out in water, the drop of water was found to be swarming with minute 

 spherical bodies, many of them being in pairs, fairly equal in size and 

 refracting light uniformly. Clusters or colonies of them were lying on 

 hollow parts of the cotton fibres. These bodies I shall in this paper 

 call micrococci, implying by that term no more than that they were 

 spherical, that they were found singly and in pairs, and that they were 

 capable of development. No rod-shaped bacteria were found in the drop. 



Having made more than one examination, and finding the micrococci 

 always present, I inoculated with them a drop of pure vitreous 

 humour, and placed it over a cell prepared in the usual manner. The 

 cells were kept at a temperature of from 96° to 98° P., and within 

 twenty-four hours appearances were observed which showed that the 

 micrococci (or spores) were developing after the fashion in which the 

 spores of the Bacillus anthracis are known to develop. In order to 



* This paper records the results of one of a series of investigations on the para-, 

 sites that infest the human skin, the expenses connected with which have been 

 defrayed by the Scientific Grants Committee of the British Medical Association. 



