FATAL OTOGENIC INFECTION WITH BACILLUS PROTEUS: Report of Two Cases

It has been only in recent years that Bacillus proteus has been regarded as having distinct pathogenic properties. Benstead and others1in 1929 stated that the microbe is frequently found in association with other organisms in various inflammatory conditions in man, but rarely is B. proteus the sole infecting organism and extremely rarely is it the cause of septicemia. Up to 1925 Warren and Lamb2were able to find in the literature only four cases of B. proteus septicemia. However, since that time there have been reported in the American and European literature an increasing number of cases in which B. proteus has played the sole etiologic rôle in infection of the ear, throat, urinary tract, meninges or blood stream. In 1922 Kernan3reported two cases of fatal B. proteus infection which were of especial otolaryngologic interest. The first patient had a peritonsillar abscess, which was followed