Bacteriological and clinical studies of the diarrheal diseases of infancy with reference to the Bacillus dysenteriae (Shiga) : from the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research / edited by Simon Flexner and L. Emmett Holt.

Date:
1904
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Bacteriological and clinical studies of the diarrheal diseases of infancy with reference to the Bacillus dysenteriae (Shiga) : from the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research / edited by Simon Flexner and L. Emmett Holt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    over night: The bacilli are non-motile. If now transplantations are made successively, from time to time, into test tubes of the acid bouil- lon, as quickly as the tubes become cloudy from growth, motion will be discovered within from 24 to 36 hours. The successive transplanta- tions may be required every one-half to one hour during fourteen to sixteen hours, a long working day, in order to bring about visible motion in the organism. In some instances even better results were obtained by diluting the acid bouillon with sterile distilled water in the proportion of 5-10 drops of the former to 10 c.c. of the latter. This method is somewhat laborious, but it is the only one with which we have succeeded invariably. When applied to older stock cultures it must be further elaborated. The agar-agar cultures used for inocula- tion must be given in such quantity as to cause the death of a guinea- pig in from 24 to 48 hours. From the peritoneal exudate a tube of acid bouillon is inoculated; from this culture, incubated for 24 hours, a second animal is inoculated and from the acid bouillon culture obtained from this guinea-pig a third one is inoculated. From this third tube, in- cubated for 24 hours, successive subcultures are prepared and examined at frequent intervals as already stated.’ : The motion of the bacilli is unmistakable, although not all in a given field are motile. The motion is a tumbling one which carries the mov- ing bacilli into the depth of the fluid and up and down across the field of the microscope. It is easily distinguished from even the most active Brownian movements. Significance of the Results. The studies presented in this paper leave little doubt of the causal relation of B. dysenterie to the summer intestinal diseases of children in the cases studied. The proof of this relationship which we have brought forward in this paper, is equiv- alent to that regarded as sufficient to prove an association of cause and effect between the same bacillus and adult dysentery. The conclusion that the bacillus of dysentery is an important, if not the most important, cause of the summer diarrheas of children seems, therefore, justifiable. In how far the presence of the bacillus may account for the general diarrheal diseases among children, both in the summer and winter, a fluid is expressed, 3 grm. sodium chloride and 10 grm. peptone are added, and the whole is boiled, filtered, and tubed. The reaction should be decidedly acid, and the bacillus of dysentery should grow abundantly in 24 hours producing a heavily clouded suspension. 1Our thanks are due to Professor Welch for drawing our attention to the use of acid bouillon for demonstrating motility.