524 THE ANAEROBIC BACTERIA 
Fats, such as l)utter and oils, are helieved to bind the toxin as well. 
Leuchs' has made the important observation that different serological 
t\^3es of B. botulinus exist. Two of these types .studied by him pro- 
duced toxins which ^ave identical symptoms, but their neutralization 
was complete only with the homologous antitoxin. The agglutinative 
and complement-fixation properties were also cjuantitatively unlike. 
Leuchs suggests the necessity of preparing therapeutic antitoxin 
through the use of a complete series of toxicogenic strains. Schoenholz 
and INIeyer^ have confirmed and extended these observations, and 
showed that the two principal types may be subdivided into smaller 
subgroups by agglutinin tests. Type C botulinus, described after 
Leuch's work, is not agglutinated by the sera of the other types.^ 
Antitoxin. — Kempner^ has succeeded in immunizing goats to the toxin 
of B. botulinus, and has identified in their serum a specific antitoxin 
which has considerable potency, both curati^■ely and prophylactically. 
Wassermann has been able to immunize horses with the same results. 
The antitoxin neutralizes the toxin both in vivo and in vitroJ' Leuchs^ 
has shown that dilute acids will split up the toxin-antitoxin combina- 
tion into the two components, both of which may be recovered. 
Pathogenesis. The lesions produced by the toxin both in man and 
in animals are very similar, and the symptoms produced are referable 
to the action of the toxin on the medulla and cord.^ There is bulbar 
paralysis, paralysis of the eye muscles, great muscular weakness, 
profuse nasal and oral discharge, aphagia, aphonia, and interference 
with the workings of the cardiac and respiratory centers. Dickson^ 
states that thrombosis is a characteristic accompaniment of fatal 
intoxication. Microscopically there are degenerative changes limited 
chiefly to the cells of the gray matter of the medulla, cord and salivary 
glands.^ 
The disease produced by the ingestion or injection of toxins of B. 
botulinus in experimental animals reproduces faithfully the symptom- 
complex seen in the naturally acquired disease in man. The organism 
itself does not appear to grow in the tissues of warm-blooded animals 
exce])t just before and after death; hence it is logical to conclude that 
the ingestion of food containing the toxins of this organism rather than 
the generation of the toxin in the tissues of the host is the source of 
intoxication. 
Bacteriological Diagnosis.— The bacteriological diagnosis cannot be 
made ordinarily in man. It is necessary in the vast majority of 
instances to obtain the meat or other substance in which the organisms 
have grown. 
(a) Microscopic. ^This is usually not feasible. 
1 Ztschr. f. Hyg., 1910, 65, 55. 2 Jour. Immunol., 1925, 10, 1. 
» See Pfenniger, Jour. Infec. Dis., 1924, 35, 347. ' Ztschr. f. Hyg., 1897, 26, 481. 
^ Forssman and Lundstrom: Ann. Inst. Pasteur, 1902, 16, 294. ^ Loc. cit. 
' Kempner and Scheplewsky: Ztschr. f. Hyg., 1898, 27, 213. * Loc. cit. 
' Marinesco: Compt. rend. Soc. de biol., 1896, 48, 989. Kempner and PoUak: 
Deutsch. med. Wchnschr., 1897, 23, 505. 
