Die Gasödeme des Menschen

The Histotoxic Clostridial Infections of Man 12

“…The anaerobic infections of wounds are clinical conceptions rather than bacteriological or even pathological entities. It is, of course, true that a full-blown clostridial myonecrosis presents a characteristic histological picture (47,48,220,520,560,747,878,1091) but between that and simple clostridial contamination all stages of involvement may be recognized. In practice this is no great handicap, for all forms of anaerobic infection short of true gas gangrene present an essentially similar clinical picture, differing only in extent, in severity, and in certain other minor details.…”

“…From the point of view of "micro-art-criticism" the value of these classical studies is still largely unchallenged and need not be detailed here. The result of more recent investigations has been rather to correlate and reinterpret the significance of the tissue changes in the light of our newer knowledge of the nature of the toxins involved (10,371,878,1091).…”

“…Although such multiple infections are by no means uncommon, our information concerning them is slight. It is known, however, that they are considerably more severe than monoclostridial infections, particularly when C. septicum and C. histolyticum are involved (631,636,637,1091).…”

“…Clostridium novyi Although C. novyi was one of the earliest pathogenic anaerobes to be isolated and clearly defined (Novy (770)), it proved so difficult to grow, and still more to obtain in pure culture, that its significance in gas gangrene was long thought to be slight. Even in World War I it attracted little attention, despite the fact that two of the most important groups of investigators found it (under the name of Clostridium oedematiens) in from 30 to 40% of all cases (700, 1062), but since then its relative importance has increased enormously and today it is rightly recognized as a most important cause of gas gangrene in man (636,637,946,953,972,973,1091,1092) and of a number of severe infections in domestic animals (12,555,556,951,1020,1094).…”

The Role of Clostridia in Diarrheal Diseases of Man

“…Taxonomically, it appears to be closely related to Cl. perfringens Type B (the cause of lamb dysentery), from which it differs in various minor points of toxicology and in its ability to produce extremely heatresistant 22 Nevertheless, enteritis necroticans might well be considered as the human form of lamb dysentery.…”