The occurrence of the spores of B. botulinus in Belgium, Denmark, England, The Netherlands and Switzerland. VI

Abstract

Botulism has been recognized in Germany since 1735, but Bitter 1 wrote in 1921 that all attempts made in Europe to locate B. botulinus in nature had completely failed. In 1919 Semerau and Noack2 expressed the opinion that the anaerobe occurred probably in regions or districts which from their geological or climatological location or incidental to contact with animal life and plant growth offered an environment suitable for multiplication and persistence. With the exception of the studies of van Ermengem 3 and Bitter, no data were available to support the hypothesis of Semerau and Noack. In yiew of the American findings, it suggested itself to examine a number of soil specimens collected in European countries in which human botulism had occurred. Such an undertaking was also prompted by a desire to compare the B. botulinus strains of the Old World with those of the New World. It can be stated without any fear of contradiction that nothing definite is known with regard to the various strains of B. botulinus which have been isolated in Europe. The early descriptions of van Ermengem and Leuchs 4 have with some slight modifications been copied by most of the recent writers. Moreover, the original strain of van Ermengem has been lost and fourteen so-called cultures of B. botulinus received from Germany during the last year have been found nontoxic, containing B. sporogenes or B. centro sporogenes. The only evidence which indicates that B. botulinus, type B or type A, is encountered in Germany is furnished by these observations : 1. The antitoxin prepared by the Institute of Infectious Diseases, Berlin, and supplied to us by Prof. Claus Schilling neutralizes the toxin of every American type B strain. 2. The Lister Institute of