NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 197 



Dr. Katz exhibited virulent preparations of the Bacillus of 

 typhoid fever, obtained at Little Bay Hospital a short time ago. 

 The exhibits consisted of pure cultures of this bacillus on and in 

 nutrient gelatine, on nutrient agar-agar, and on potatoes. Occasion 

 was also taken to demonstrate the process of cultivating in 

 gelatine-test-tubes after Esmarch of Berlin. He showed also a 

 drop-culture of this micro-organism in nutrient meat-broth under 

 a high power of the microscope, where the active spontaneous 

 movements of the bacillus could well be seen. In connection with 

 the above subject Dr. Katz read the following note : — 



" The microbe which you have before you in different preparations 

 is that which must be considered as the cause of typhoid fever, as 

 it is constantly present in this disease, and never found in others. 

 According to quite recent investigations made with regard to the 

 transmissibility of the bacillus of typhoid fever to animals — mice, 

 rabbits, guinea-pigs, and dogs — there can be no doubt that this 

 micro-organism is able to make these animals sick, and to kill 

 them under certain circumstances. This holds equally true with 

 experiments carried out with cultivations in which the bacilli are 

 killed by heat, but their poisonous products preserved. Taking 

 everything into consideration, one must believe, with Fraenkel 

 and Simmonds, that somehow or other the microbe in question 

 does cause pathogenic effects of some kind in the above-named 

 animals, but is not infectious to them. Moreover, no animals, 

 not even those which are always about man, are hitherto 

 found to be liable to typhoid fever or to such-like diseases. With 

 relation to the biology of the bacillus a good deal of work still 

 remains to be done ; and, a radical cure for the disease, 

 or a possible protective inoculation being of course still a 

 desideratum, special attention should be paid to the more prac- 

 tical part of the life-history of this fungus, I mean especially 

 to its behaviour in the dejections from typhoid-fever patients. 

 These products naturally furnish, indirectly or directly, sooner or 

 later, the principal sources of infection, and it is for this reason 

 that the endeavours of experimenters should also be directed to 

 this point." 



