A Reaction with Iron Compounds for the Determination of B. anthracis and of its Pathogenicity
Abstract
Receive: RSS Feeds, eTOCs, free email alerts (when new articles cite this article), more» Information about commercial reprint orders: http://jb.asm.org/site/misc/reprints.xhtml To subscribe to to another ASM Journal go to: http://journals.asm.org/site/subscriptions/ Downloaded from http://jb.asm.org/ on December 9, 2011 by deepdyve West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, West Virginia Received for publication, August 6, 1936 Well known as is anthrax and its causative agent, Bacillus anthracis, there are many important facts about the disease and the organism that are very confusing. The mechanisms by which the anthrax bacillus causes the death of an infected animal are unknown, and the relationship of this organism to other bacteria resembling it is far from being clear. Many properties stated as being characteristic of B. anthracis are now known to be merely common cultural and morphological characters. Many times the only criteria for differentiating the anthrax bacillus from other spore-bearing aerobic bacilli resembling it are the pathogenicity tests, and these, although suitable for clinical tests on typical strains of B. anthracis, are for purely bacteriological purposes, useless in cases where the organism has been attenuated in some way by artificial treatment. Also, animal inoculation tests are always attended with danger and extreme care