Contributions to the biochemistry of pathogenic anaerobes

THE work described in this paper is an attempt to fill up some of the more obvious gaps existing in our knowledge of Bacillus welchii and Baccillus sporogenes?Our considerations for believing that a study of these bacteria should be made from the purely chemical side are the following.Organisms other than those involved in gas gangrene produce a general infection, or their growth is associated with the formation of obscure compounds such as toxins, none of which have been definitely isolated and identified.The group of organisms a t present under discussion is of a different sort.Their effect is mainly local.Their digestive ferments, and the gas evolved during growth, produce changes in the tissues which are, compared with those of streptococci or similar organisms, of an exceedingly gross character and can be readily followed by analytical technique.The two organisms used in the present research occur almost invariably in anaerobic wound infection and are typical.B. sporogenes attacks proteins with great violence, and, as will be seen in the subsequent description, has a proteolytic action almost the equal of trypsin or pepsin.B. perfringens, while it attacks sugar-free media, even those in which the carbohydrate moiety is absent, is typical of the group of anaerobes whose favourite milieu for abundant growth is one in which a carbohydrate is present.