Bacillus Welchii in Bread

Abstract

The Welch bacillus, originally described by Welch and Nuttall1 under the name B. aerogenes capsulatus, is probably the best known of the sporeforming anaerobes. is widely distributed in nature, occurring usually in large numbers in the human intestine and in sewage. is frequently encountered in water supplies, soil, dust, milk and other foodstuffs and, in addition, has been reported from a great variety of miscellaneous sources.2 During the recent wan attention was centered on it as the chief cause of gas gangrene, and as a result the organism has been made the subject of numerous extensive studies, both in this country and abroad, concerning its biology, its biochemical, serologic and toxic properties and especially its relation to wound infection, gas gangrene and the pathology of these infections. should be understood that B. welchii is now usually regarded as representative of a group of similar organisms having in common certain salient characteristics. The recent statement by Kendall, Day and Walker,8 It seems probable that the Welch is the type member of either a group of closely related organisms, or of a series of identifiable variants of the same bacillus expresses our present opinion.