PAPERS READ. 



BACTERIOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS MADE AT THE 

 LITTLE BAY COAST HOSPITAL. 



By Dr. Oscar Katz. 



It was not alone on account of my desire to obtain pure-cul- 

 tures of the bacillus of typhoid fever (Bacillus typhi abdominalis, 

 Eberth-Gaiffky), with the view of having them for some intended 

 experiments on this micro-organism (1), but also for the sake of 

 putting forward, by means of the demonstration of its constant 

 occurrence in typhoid fever, fresh proofs of the etiological meaning 

 of this microbe in a country where such experiments have not yet 

 been made known, that I applied to Dr. H. N. MacLaurin, Medical 

 Adviser to the New South Wales Government, to permit me to 

 make a short stay in the Coast Hospital at Little Bay, a place 

 admirably fitted for carrying out investigations of that kind. I 

 gladly avail myself of this opportunity of tendering Dr. MacLaurin 



(I) Among a number of cultures of bacteria in agar-agar which Professor 

 Fltigge had been kind enough to send to me at the end of last year, there 

 was also the typhoid-bacillus. But unfortunately in this culture on its 

 arrival life was extinct. In the test-tube it had only little expanded ; 

 that it was no moi-e alive may be accounted for by the fact that the tube, 

 together with others, had been sent away (via Bremen) immediately after 

 their having been supplied with culture-material, at a time (end of 

 November), when a formation of spores could not be expected. The bacilli 

 very likely died from want of air, which had no access to the interior 

 of the glass-tubes these having been provided with tightly fitting india- 

 rubber-caps. 



