The group of nonsporulating anaerobes described in the literature under the names Bacterium necrophorum, Bacillus funduliformis and a number of others has been found in various pathologic conditions in man and animals. These conditions include septicemia, abscesses of the liver, lungs and subcutaneous tissues and inflammations of the joints. In a comparative study by Dack, Dragstedt and McCullough1 the strains from diseases in man, represented by B. funduliformis, have been shown to present no clearcut differences from the strains reported usually in animal and occasionally in human disease and represented by Bact. necrophorum. Dack and his associates,2 describing these organisms in their studies of ulcerative colitis, placed them in the genus Bacterium, since they lack a characteristic of the genus Bacillus, the ability to form spores. These workers retained the name Bact. necrophorum on the basis of priority. The literature on these nonsporulating anaerobes has been reviewed in