32 



Scientific Proceedings (102). 



B. proteus. 



(Both very doubtful as causal agents of true gaseous 

 gangrene.) 



Group III. 



Organisms Merely Present in Gaseous Gangrene. 

 Never essential causal agents, though they may be capable of 

 causing complications; and may have an importance in symbiosis 

 with other organisms; and may be a cause of a great modification 

 of the clinical picture. 



A. Anaerobes: 



Proteolytic: 



B. putrificus. 



B. bifermentans (also has a powerful saccharolytic 



action). 

 B. tetani. 

 B. tertius. 



B. Aerobe?. 



Cocci : 



Streptococci, staphylococci and diplococci. 

 Bacilli. (Gram negative.) 



B. proteus, coli, pyocyaneous, etc. 

 Bacilli. (Gram positive.) 



B. anthracoides group 



B. subtil is group 



B. mesenterial and myscoides group, etc. 

 The pathogenicity of this entire series exhibits great variation. 

 There are strains of B. wekkii and B. cedematiens that have almost 

 no virulence. The B. u-elchii is notable in this respect, a few 

 strains showing great pathogenicity, while many others have little 

 or none; and the average is not sufficiently high to make it an easy 

 matter to produce an antitoxin of high titer. Under exceptional 

 circumstances the B. sporogenes, fallax and aerofoetidus are capable 

 of producing a lesion alone, though as a rule these lesions are of a 

 benign character of a type of a gaseous phlegmon. In infectious 

 gaseous gangrene these organisms are commonly associated with 

 organisms of greater pathogenicity such as the B. welchii or 

 cedematiens, so that their role approaches that of accessory micro- 



