Pathogenic Bacteria

BACILLUS AEROGENES CAPSULATUS. 471

At times, however, as in a case of Graham Stewart
and Baldwin, there is no' doubt that the bacillus produces
gas in the tissues of the entire body during life. These
observers, in a case of abortion with subsequent infection,
found the patient u emphysematous from the top of her
head to the soles of her feetn several hours before
death.

In this case, in which the bacillus was found in pure
culture, it would indeed be difficult to doubt that the
fatal issue was due to the bacillus aerogenes capsulatus.
Whether the fatal termination of the cases is due to the
presence of gas in the vessels, or partly to that and partly
to some toxic property it possesses, does not seem to have
been worked out as yet. It would seem, however, to have
a toxic property from the fact that the onset of the infec-
tion is first shown by the occurrence of chill, pyrexia,
and rapid pulse, and from the change caused by the
clumps of bacilli upon the surrounding cells of the tis-
sues in which they occur.