Word Finder - bacillus

definition

Any of various rod-shaped, spore-forming aerobic bacteria in the genus Bacillus, some of which cause disease.

definition

Any bacilliform (rod-shaped) bacterium.

definition

(by extension) Something which spreads like bacterial infection.

It is now known that the plague was caused by a bacillus transmitted by rat fleas.

Only a single pathogenic species can withstand the short boiling to which milk is ordinarily treated in domestic management, and this is the anthrax bacillus containing spores.

Of the lower animals, mice, rats, guinea-pigs, rabbits, squirrels and monkeys are susceptible to the bacillus; horses, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, dogs and cats are more or less resistant, but cats and dogs have been known to die of plague (Oporto, Daman, Cutch and Poona).

By growing this bacillus in broth a toxin is formed which remains in solution and can be separated from the bacilli themselves by filtration.

Robertson has shown that the typhoid bacillus can grow very easily in certain soils, can persist in soils through the winter months, and when the soil is artificially fed, as may be done by a leaky drain or by access of filthy water from the surface, the microorganism will take on a fresh growth in the warm season.

The report also considers it proved that the bacillus pestis multiplies in the stomach of a flea and may remain a considerable time within its host.

Klein also prepares a new prophylactic from the dried organs of a guinea-pig, and one of the most interesting experiments is that of Strong (Archiv far Schiff sand tropische Hygiene, April, 1906), who uses for producing immunity in man a living virulent culture of the bacillus pestis.

This disease depends upon the presence of a bacillus which grows rapidly at the back of the throat and in the airpassages specially of children, causing the formation of a membrane which, by plugging the windpipe, causes suffocation and death.

It may be diminished or its increase prevented by a diet from which red meat and meat extracts are excluded, by the use of the lactic acid bacillus, by the administration of laxatives and cholagogues to regulate the bowels, and by the use of iodides and nitrites.

This disease is due to the presence of large numbers of Bacillus solanacearum in the tubes through which water is conveyed to the leaves from the roots.

All these terms, including the usual one of bacteria, are unsatisfactory; for " bacterium," " bacillus " and " micrococcus " have narrow technical meanings, and the other terms are too vague to be scientific. The most satisfactory designation is that proposed by Nageli in 1857, namely " schizomycetes," and it is by this term that they are usually known among botanists; the less exact term, however, is also used and is retained in this article since the science is commonly known as " bacteriology."

By 1876 the anthrax bacillus had been obtained in pure culture by Koch, and some other pathogenic bacteria had been observed in the tissues, but it was in the decade 1880-1890 that the most important discoveries were made in this field.

In the last decade of the 19th century the chief discoveries were of the bacillus of influenza (1892), of the bacillus of plague (1894) and of the bacillus of dysentery (1898).

The leprosy bacillus seems to have ' got rid of ' non-essential genes.

Of the dry antiseptics iodoform is constantly used in septic or tuberculous wounds, and it appears to have an inhibitory action on Bacillus tuberculosis.

Their pneumonic nature has been amply substantiated in later times; they are now regarded simply as evidence of pneumonic reaction to the stimulus of the tubercle bacillus.

A definite bacillus to which the peculiarly fine flavour of certain butters is due, is said to be largely employed in pure cultures in American dairies, and in Denmark certain butters are said to keep fresh much longer owing to the use of pure cultures and the treatment employed to suppress the forms which cause rancidity.

Living in the soil are huge numbers of bacteria belonging to the genus bacillus.

The caseous necrosis of the implicated mass of lung tissue, and indeed of tubercles generally, is held to be, in great measure, the result of the necrotic influence of the secretions from the bacillus.

It is difficultly fermented by yeast, but readily by the lactic acid bacillus.

It is especially desirable for hospital and ambulance staffs to be inoculated with a vaccine prepared from sterilized cultures of plague bacillus.

This is the case in the methods for staining the tubercle bacillus and also in Gram's method, the essential point in which latter is the treatment with a solution of iodine before decolorizing.

This, for example, is the case with the anthrax bacillus; although the effect of this organism in the living body indicates the production of toxins which diffuse for a distance around the bacteria.

Thus, to mention examples, diphtheria toxin produces inflammatory oedema which may be followed by necrosis; dead tubercle bacilli give rise to a tubercle-like nodule, &c. Furthermore, a bacillus may give rise to more than one toxic body, either as stages in one process of change or as distinct products.

In the case of diphtheria Sidney Martin obtained toxic albumoses in the spleen, which he considered were due to the digestive action of an enzyme formed by the bacillus in the membrane and absorbed into the circulation.

In the lastmentioned disease even the local multiplication depends upon the presence of other bacteria, as the tetanus bacillus has practically no power of multiplying in the healthy tissues when introduced alone.

Many of the earlier methods of attenuation were devised in the case of the anthrax bacillus, an organism which is, however, somewhat exceptional as regards the relative stability of its virulence.

Shortly afterwards Widal and also Griinbaum showed that the serum of patients suffering from typhoid fever, even at an early stage of the disease, agglutinated the typhoid bacillus - a fact which laid the foundation of serum diagnosis.

Observations made on this property with respect to the anthrax bacillus at first gave the hope that it might explain variations in natural immunity.

Thus the serum of the white rat, which is immune to anthrax, kills the bacillus; whereas the serum of the guinea-pig, which is susceptible, has no such effect.

In the light of all the facts, however, especially those contains an opsonin which leads to phagocytosis of the bacillus, and the latter is then destroyed by the leucocytes.

The list of his works of fiction includes The Stolen Bacillus and other Stories (1895), The Wonderful Visit (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Plattner Story and Others (1897), When the Sleeper Wakes (1899), The First Men in the Moon (1901), The Food of the Gods (1904), In the Days of the Comet (1906), The War in the Air (1908), Anne Veronica (1909), The History of Mr Polly (191 0).

Species of small size are found in southern Europe, one belonging to the genus Bacillus advancing as far north as the middle of France.

Where, therefore, there is animal pollution of any kind, more especially where there is human pollution, generally indicated by the presence of bacillus coli communis, purification is of supreme importance, and no process has yet been devised which, except at extravagant cost, supersedes for public supplies that of properly-conducted sand filtration.

With regard to the bacillary type, at first both organisms were considered to be identical, and the name bacillus dysenteriae was given to them; but later it was shown that these bacilli are different, both in regard to their cultural characteristics and also in that one (Shiga) gives out a soluble toxin, whilst the other has so far resisted all efforts to discover it.

In those cases due to Shiga's bacillus the ideal treatment has been put at our disposal by the preparation of a specific antitoxin; this has been given a trial in several grave epidemics of late, and may be said to be the most satisfactory treatment and offer the greatest hope of recovery.

Still later, in 1874, Dr Cohn, after the most exhaustive experiments and bacteriological research, realized that the disease was caused by a bacillus, and - nine years later - the name Bacillus alvei was given to it by Cheyne and Cheshire, whose views were in agreement with those of Dr Cohn.

When the disease attacks the larvae before they are sealed over Bacillus alvei is present, usually associated with Streptococcus apis, which latter imparts a sour smell to the dead brood.

Under these conditions Bacillus brandenburgiensis is found, although Bacillus alvei may also be present.

Many bacteria can be found within rice, and the most common bacteria associated with food poisoning from rice is called bacillus.

The causative agent is Aeromonas salmonicida a non-motile, Gram-negative aerobic bacillus, typically 1 µm x 2 µm.

B. fragilis is a Gram negative short bacillus which demonstrates pleomorphism.

Tetanus is caused by a Gram-positive bacillus, Clostridium tetani.

For example, genes from the bacterium bacillus thuringiensis produce a toxin that kills certain insects.

Those which require oxygen are called aerobes, e.g. Bacillus cereus.

The fact that the tubercle bacillus is to be found in the lesions of both has set at rest any misgiving on the subject, and put beyond dispute the fact that so-called scrofulous affections are simply local manifestations of tuberculosis.

A knowledge of the bacteriology of scrofulous affections of bone and joints, such as caries and gelatinous degeneration, has shown that they also are tubercular diseases - that is to say, diseases due to the presence locally of the tubercle bacillus.

The rapid diagnosis of diphtheria, by recognizing its bacillus, has enabled the practitioner of medicine to commence the treatment early, and it has also enabled the medical officer of health to step in and insist on the isolation of affected persons before the disease has had time to spread.

Fortunately Germany, which at the beginning of the century was delivered over to Brownism and vitalism and was deaf to Bichat, was rescued from this sort of barrenness by the brilliant experimental work of Claude Bernard and Pasteur in France - work which, as regards the attenuated virus, was a development of that of Edward Jenner, and indeed of Schwann, Robert Koch worthily following Pasteur with his work on the bacillus of anthrax and with his discovery of that of tuberculosis; and by the cellular doctrine and abundant labours in pathology of Virchow.

The typhoid organism was not found to be taken off from the decomposing masses of semi-liquid filth largely contaminated with a culture of bacillus typhosus; but, on the other hand, it was abundantly proved that it could grow over moist surfaces of stones, &c. Certain disease-producing organisms, such as the bacillus of tetanus and malignant oedema, appear to be universally distributed in soil, while others, as the bacillus typhosus and spirillum cholerae, appear to have only a local distribution.