Clostridium Putrificum (B. Putrificus Bienstock), a Distinct Species

A Study of Anaerobic Bacteria

“…We plated it out many times. The morphology was exactly like the illustration in the paper of Reddish and Rettger (1922). By careful measurement the terminal spores were found to be almost but not quite spherical.…”

Isolation of an Obligately Anaerobic Bacillus from the Feces of Newborn Infants and from Other Human Sources, and Its Probable Identity with the “Köpfchenbakterien” of Escherich, Rodella's “Bacillus III,” andBacillus paraputrificus(Bienstock)

“…Their failure to do so was re-iterated by Bienstock in 1906. This point is important because it lays the basis for the later identification of B. putrificus by Reddish and Rettger (1922) (1923) (1924), Hall (1922), Kahn (1922), Cunningham (1932, and others, and our recognition of the "Ko5pfchenbakterien" as belonging to a single separate species which ferments several sugars and has neither gelatinolytic nor proteolytic action. For the same reason we are unable to accept Sittler's (1909) and Cruickshank's (1931) identification of "Kopfchenbakterien" with Bacillus putriicus, or to understand the inclusion in the species B putrnflcus, of various non-pathogenic anaerobes with oval terminal spores, by AWeinburg, Aznar, and Duthie (1924) irrespective of fermentation reactions.…”

The Identity of Bacillus putrificus Bienstock

“…3 to 6 with B5. Reddish and Rettger (1923) reject Bienstock's 1884, 1899 and 1901 descriptions as worthless on the ground that his cultures were impure. Nevertheless they state that these descriptions certainly "had reference to an anaerobe having round terminal spores."…”

“…putrificus as a slender rod, which produces more or less spherical spores, always strictly terminal and which is incapable of attacking sugars to any appreciable extent. The chief advocates of this view are Reddish and Rettger (1922, 1923, 1924. On the other hand several investigators have referred to the fermentation of certain carbohydrates by strains of Bac.…”

“…On the other hand several investigators have referred to the fermentation of certain carbohydrates by strains of Bac. putrificus obtained from type culture collections (Achalme (1902); Reddish (1924)) or by cultures believed to be identical with Bienstock's bacillus (Kendall, Day and Walker (1922); Kahn (1922)).…”