538 THE ANAEROBIC BACTERIA 
Toxin.— The earlier efforts to detect a toxin among the products 
obtained from cultures of \'ibrion septique were of uncertain value, 
although there is strong evidence that soluble poisons were formed/ 
because of the possible impurity of the cultures used and the conse- 
quent possibility that poisonous products were formed simultaneously 
by other organisms. The work of Nicolle, Cesari and llaphaeP and 
of Miss Robertson,^ however, has shown that the bacteria-free filtrates 
of twenty-four to forty-eight hour cultures of many strains of Vibrion 
septique contain soluble poisons which will kill experimental animals. 
The poison resembles that of B. welchii, both in the fact that it 
incites edema and necrosis, and also in that it contains a hemolysin. 
Relatively large amounts of culture, however, must be injected to 
insure a fatal termination. Sublethal doses do not seem to produce 
characteristic effects. Intravenous injections are more reliable than 
intraperitoneal inoculations. 
Fig. 74. — Vibrion septique, spore formation. X 1000. (KoUe and Hetsch.) 
The toxin of the Vibrion differs quantitatively from that ordinarily 
obtained from cultures of B. welchii in that the lethal period is mate- 
rially shorter, as a rule. A. fatal dose usually kills the animal within 
fifteen to thirty minutes. The postmortem changes, therefore, are 
much less conspicuous than those observed with the Welch toxin. 
The principal symptoms are convulsions, followed by paralysis. 
Hemolysin.— Nicolle, Cesari and Raphael,'* and Weinberg and Seguin^ 
have found that twenty-four to forty-eight hour glucose broth cultures 
contain soluble substances which will hemolyze the erythrocytes of 
mammals and man. Older cultures gradually lose this power. The 
liberation of the hemoglobin does not appear to be dependent upon 
the reaction of the medium. An anti-hemolysin develops in the sera 
of animals immunized against such cultures. 
1 Roux and Chamberland: Ann. Inst. Pasteur, 1887, 1, 561. Duenschmann : Ibid.. 
1894, 8, 403. 
2 Ann. Inst. Pasteur, 1915, 29, 165. ' Jour. Pathol, and Bacteriol., 1920, 23, 153. 
" Loc. cit. ^ Log. cit., p. 97. 
