Introduction Chromobacteria have been known to bacteriologists since 1823, when an Italian scientist by the name of Bizio1first called attention to the red-pigment-producing species which he named Serratia marcescens. Subsequently, two other members of this group of organisms were identified and named according to the characteristic pigment they produced, namely, Chromobacterium violeceum, which produces a purple- or violet-colored pigment, and Chromobacterium aquatilis, which yields a yellowish-blue pigment. These organisms are Gram-negative, nonsporulating, actively motile rods which produce pigment only in the presence of oxygen. They grow abundantly on most artificial media, but solid media are necessary for pigment production. They are natural inhabitants of the large bowel, skin, and lower urinary tract of man and other animals.2 Human infection caused by various species of Chromobacteria have been but briefly and infrequently recorded in the American literature. It is of some interest that these organisms were considered to