Bacchanal

“ Men flung themselves about as if possessed, and uttered frantic prophecies; women dressed as Bacchanals, with dishevelled locks, ran down to the Tiber, and plunged into the water torches, which, composed of a mixture of sulphur and lime, were not extinguished in the waves. ”

“ Bachelor or Bachelier has been derived from bas échelle, the lowest step of the ladder. (Meyrick.)
Baccha, Gr. and R. A Bacchante; a woman who celebrates the mysteries of Bacchus, in the temples of the god, or in the Bacchic orgies. In the numerous representations of Bacchantes which occur on monuments of ancient art, they carry the thyrsus in their right hands, and wear a wreath of ivy or vine-leaves on their heads. They appear also in the disguise of Lenæ, Thyades, Naiads, Nymphs, &c.
Bacchanalia, R. (Greek, Dionysia) . Festivals held in honour of Dionysus or Bacchus. ”

“ As soon as the blood is driven out, leaving the nodule pale, make a puncture with the point of a sharp knife. From this puncture a clear fluid exudes; this, dried on a cover glass, stained with carbol-fuchsin, and rapidly decolonized with a weak mineral acid, shows bacilli stained red and very like tubercle bacilli; they differ from that organism, however, in that they are somewhat shorter, and that if the acid be too strong or be allowed to act on them for too long a time, the colour is discharged from them much more readily. ”

“ In my own laboratory, recent experiments made with the bacillus of glanders have shown that when grown in a slightly acid medium containing alkali-albuminate, albumoses, peptones, and crystalline bodies such as leucin and tyrosin are formed in considerable quantities. Kresling162 has reported similar results. With the tubercle-bacilli, many like results have been recorded. Thus, among others, Crookshank and Herroun163 have reported the finding of albumoses, peptone, and a ptomaine when the bacilli have been grown in glycerin agar-agar, and also in fluid media. ”

“ It grows readily on most media at the temperature of the body, but, like the glanders bacillus, soon loses its virulence in cultivations. It may be obtained in pure cultures from the lymph glands, and from the abscesses that are formed in the groin or other positions in which the glands become enlarged and softened. It may also be found in the spleen and in the blood, and, in the case of patients suffering from the pneumonic form of the disease, even in the lungs and in the sputum. It has also been found in the faeces and urine. ”

“ The disease ends fatally in two or three days.
Slight injuries to the surface of the skin or mucous membrane are sufficient for the introduction of the causal bacillus. This organism is, like tetanus, an anaërobe, existing172 in the superficial layers of the soil. From its habitat it readily gains entrance to animal tissues. It has spores, but though they are of greater diameter than the bacillus itself they are not absolutely terminal. Hence they merely swell out the capsule of the bacillus, and produce a club-shaped rod. They form gas while growing in the tissues and in artificial culture. ”

“ The brilliant idea occurred to Professor Metchnikoff, of administering acid-producing germs which might work their way 154 through the digestive system, and, reaching the large intestine, produce the acid required. After much experimenting the bacillus of Massol, Bacillus bulgaricus, was adopted as the most suitable. The Bulgarian bacillus is an extremely vigorous one, multiplying with great rapidity, and persisting in conditions that would be inimical to other microbes. The growth and development of bacteria is interfered with by the products of their own activity ”

“ In films stained by Gabbet's method tubercle bacilli, if present, will be seen as slender red rods upon a blue background of mucus and cells (Plate II, Fig. 2) . They average 3 to 4 μ in length—about one-half the diameter of a red blood-corpuscle. Beginners must be warned against mistaking the edges of cells, or particles which have retained the red stain, for bacilli. The appearance of the bacilli is almost always typical, and if there seems room for doubt, the structure in question is probably not a tubercle bacillus. They may lie singly or in groups. ”

“ In sections stained by the Gram-Weigert method to show the presence of bacteria, a large Gram-staining bacillus was noted between the muscle fibers in the connective-tissue elements of the muscle. In some of the sections these bacilli were present in great numbers, sometimes in densely packed clumps or masses, while in other sections, or in other portions of the same section, they were only sparsely distributed between the muscle fibers. Where the bacteria were more numerous the histological changes in the muscle fibers, especially the breaking down of the nuclei, were more noticeable. ”

“ By examining microscopically a drop of this broth culture the bacilli are seen in active movement, swarming at the margins of the drop, interspersed with the spiral threads, which are also apparently mobile. They grow also in other fluids, e. g., very abundantly in milk, without coagulating it or changing its appearance. Also in blood serum they grow very richly. Another good nutrient medium is gelatine, wherein the comma bacilli form colonies of a perfectly characteristic kind, different from those of any other form of bacteria. ”

“ The bacillus is ærobic, yet it will grow at the bottom of a stick culture in solid media. It fails to grow in an atmosphere of CO2, 201H, or N. It stains readily in aniline colors, and also by Gram’s method. It grows freely on a variety of culture media (blood serum, aqueous humor, urine, vegetable infusions, milk, meat bouillon, peptonized gelatine, potatoes, etc.) at a temperature of 20° to 38° C. Growth ceases below 12° C., and above 45° C. Growth is most active in neutral or slightly alkaline media, and is arrested by that which is decidedly acid. ”

“ In a testicle only slightly affected, we found bacilli everywhere in the endothelium of the vessels, and in several dilated vessels white blood corpuscles filled with bacilli (Plate X, Figs. 5 and 6) ; and in some places also bacilli lying free between the red blood corpuscles (Plate X, Fig. 7) . At the same time, and especially where the affection is more marked, the bacilli penetrate into the seminal canals, and lie grouped in their walls around the nuclei (Plate IX, Figs. 4 and 5, [Page 46] Plate X, Fig. 1) , and their epithelial cells are more or less filled with them (Figs. 1, 2 and 4) . ”

“ The bacillus is usually straight or slightly curved and rounded at one end; it appears to be non-motile. As first pointed out by Loeffler and Schiitz, when a portion of a culture is inoculated subcutaneously, typical farcy, with the acute septicaemia or blood-poisoning so characteristic of certain cases of glanders and farcy, is the result. The human subject is usually inoculated through wounds or scratches, or through the application of the nasal discharge of a slandered animal to the mucous membrane of the nose or mouth. ”

“ In old artificial cultures chains of considerable length may be formed. In the blood the bacillus is usually found in the leucocytes, as many as 20 or more being often present in a single cell. In the lymph networks of organs they also invade the leucocytes but are found in free masses as well. The bacillus is anærobic, but facultative ærobic, its preference being manifestly for the absence of oxygen. ”

“ That is what nature does to a bacillus, literally walls it off in stone. After death when the pathologist's knife cuts down into a lung, the knife is sometimes broken by coming upon what feels like a stone. A stone it really is, a deposit of lime salts in the tissue, around a nest of tubercle bacilli. If one cuts such a stone in two, one finds in the centre bacilli often still alive and perfectly capable of increase, but harmless to the body because nature has built this wall around them. ”

“ From the under-surface of the oil, if the bacillus be that of plague, stalactite-like growths of bacilli will form. When disturbed, the stalactite growths break off and fall in snow-like flakes to the bottom of the vessel. No other known bacillus behaves in this way. (See p. 325.) In case of doubt, animal inoculation should be had recourse to: a little of the virus from the patient or a culture is rubbed into a shaven area (1 in. square) on the abdomen of a white rat or a guineapig. ”

“ In a limb we get a discharge; in a lung we get an expectoration. Both discharge and expectoration arise from a breaking down of the new cell formation. Previously to breaking down we have in a fully developed nodule healthy tissue, inflammatory zone, epithelioid cells, giant cells, containing nuclei and bacilli. The sputum or the discharge will, during the acute stage of the disease at all events, contain countless numbers of the bacilli, which may thus be readily detected, and their presence used as evidence of the disease. ”

“ Even in such preparations there are many places where one cannot definitely distinguish the position of the bacilli; but as one always finds bacilli in the cells where the preparations are sufficiently clear, we may safely conclude that the bacilli lie everywhere in the cells. In the connective tissue spaces one often sees bacilli in and round the nuclei of the connective tissue cells (Plate X, Fig. 8) , and although the body of the cell is not visible, we may conclude that the bacilli lie in the cell body, and not free in the lymph spaces. ”

“ Some bacteria appear to be unable to perform their regular function without the aid of others. An example of such association is well illustrated in the case of tetanus, for it has been shown that if the bacilli and spores of tetanus alone obtain entrance to a wound the disease may not follow the same course as when with the specific organism the lactic-acid bacillus or the common organisms of suppuration or putrefaction also gain entrance. ”

“ In a glucose culture medium growth is not prevented by the presence of oxygen at the surface. The colonies formed in gelatine plate cultures show an opaque centre with fine divergent rays, and a similar radiating growth is shown in deep stick cultures. At the end of the second week the gelatine begins to liquefy and form a little gas, and finally the whole mass becomes soft and sticky. The bacillus does not liquefy blood serum. Cultures have a disagreeable aromatic odor.
The bacilli stain readily in aniline colors and by Gram’s method. The spores may be stained by Ziehl’s method. ”

“ Surrounding the young organism are numerous long and well-formed flagella, which give it a very characteristic appearance under the microscope. At present there is no evidence that the typhoid bacUlus forms spores. These bacilli are found in the adenoid follicles or lymphatic tissues of the intestine, in the mesenteric glands, in the spleen, liver and kidneys, and may also be detected even in the small lymphoid masses in the lung and in the post-typhoid abscesses formed in the bones, kidneys, or other parts of the body ”

“ In an infusion to which a fragment of cheese had been added, I have seen a pellicle form in three days, which, on microscopical examination, proved to be composed of an aggregation of Bacteria, Vibriones, and Leptothrix filaments. A mixture of albuminous urine and turnip-infusion has also rapidly become turbid in a vessel of this kind owing to the appearance of multitudes of Bacteria, and so has a mixture containing one-third of healthy urine with two-thirds of infusion of turnip. ”

“ Again, we are not inclined to ascribe much practical value to that analysis of the inductive method which Bacon has given, in the second book of the Novum Organum. It is indeed an elaborate and correct analysis. But it is an analysis of that which we are all doing from morning to night, and which we continue to do even in our dreams. A plain man finds his stomach out of order. He never heard Lord Bacon’s name. But he proceeds in the strictest conformity with the rules laid down in the second book of the Novum Organum, and satisfies himself that minced pies have done the mischief. ”

“ The best medium for cultures to be so used is 6 per cent. glycerine bouillon, and the age of the tuberculosis culture 8 to 12 days. One part of fresh blood serum of the suspected animal in a sterilized capillary tube is added to ten parts of the bacillus culture, and the tube placed in an oblique position. In 2 to 24 hours a fine sand-like material precipitates along the sides of the tube, and the microscope shows the bacilli in clumps, absolutely still without even Brownian movements. ”

“ Sometimes they pass back into the blood stream and carry the bacteria to various parts of the body for elimination. Not infrequently the white corpuscles die in the contest, and then may accumulate in the form of pus and make their way through the skin to be discharged directly. The battle between these phagocytes and the bacteria goes on vigorously. If in the end the phagocytes prove too strong for the invaders, the bacteria are gradually all destroyed, and the attack is repelled. Under these circumstances the individual commonly knows nothing—of the matter. ”

“ The serum of an animal injected with one strain will agglutinate bacilli of another in high dilutions. Even the serological tests of patients suffering from dysentery caused by one type of bacillus give uncertain results. Penfold and others have shown that cultural reactions which are constant for one type of bacillus can be made to vary by growing the same bacillus under different conditions, and even passage through the intestinal tract of a fly may exert a temporary influence on their power of fermentation (Bahr) . ”