K. F. MEYER 637 



noted by Jonescu' in three albino rats. In the typical lesions of the disease a bipolar 

 organism was present; however, the virulence was high for mice and pigeons but low 

 for rats. Successful infections resulted when the Pasteurella organism was injected 

 in combination with streptococci. 



Paratyphoid, either in epidemic form with a high mortality (75-100 per cent) 

 or as latent infections, has been described by a number of workers (Loeffler,^ Issa- 

 tschenko,^ Danysz,4 Schern,s Pappenheimer and Von Wedel,^ Trautmann,' Cannon,* 

 Savage and Read,' Ball and Price- Jones,'" and others). In the acute infections, 

 diarrhea and the formation of bloody crusts around the eyes are quite characteristic. 

 At autopsy an engorged spleen, multiple focal necroses (not specific for Gartner in- 

 fection), enlarged lymph nodes and Peyer's patches, and a blood-tinged intestinal 

 content are rarely absent. The chronic cases may show very few or no lesions. The 

 strains of paratyphoid bacilli cultivated from these rat infections in various parts of 

 the world are predominantly of the B, enteritidis type (Jordan)." However, Herzand 

 Trawinski'- claim the isolation of paratyphoid A and paratyphoid B strains from wild 

 rats, and Meyer and Matsumura'^ encountered aerlrycke types in Mus norvegicus in 

 San Francisco. A bacillus similar to but not identical with the representatives of the 

 paratyphoid group has been found by Gheorghiu'^ in the course of a rat epidemic at 

 Strassburg. Infections per os with a small number of bacteria and contact transmis- 

 sions to young rats have been successful in a series of experiments conducted by the 

 writer. Price- Jones, '^ and others. The bacillus can be found in the spleen and liver of 

 nearly all fed animals in forty-eight hours; after ten days it begins to disappear, and 

 at the end of about two months it can be recovered from only about 10 per cent. 

 Agglutinins persist long after the animals have lost their infection. "Healthy" car- 

 riers can initiate an epidemic among fresh young rats, and in the observations of 

 Price- Jones they caused reinfections. The epidemiology is probably quite similar to 

 that observed in mice. The various intestinal flagellates common to the intestinal 

 tube of the rat in their relationship to the host susceptibility deserve further investi- 

 gation. 



In many rat colonies scab, due to a mite, Notoedres alepis, which burrows under 

 the skin of the ears and tail, is quite common. It is readily spread in wooden cages 



' Jonescu, A. P.: Arch. Vet., 16, 49. 1922. 

 -Loeffler, F.: he. cit 



^ Issatschenko, B.: Centralbl. f. BakterioL, 23, 873. 1898. 

 "•Danysz, J.: loc. cit. 



5 Schern, K.: Arb. a. d. kaiserl. Gesundheilsanmte, 30, 575. 1909. 

 ^Pappenheimer, A. M., and von Wedel, H.: J. Infect. Dis., 14, 180. 1914. 

 'Trautmann, H.: Ztschr.f. Hyg. u. Infektionskrankh., 54, 104. 1906. 

 'Cannon, P. R.: /. Infect. Dis., 26, 402. 1920. 

 'Savage, W. G., and Read, W. J.: loc. cit. 



'"Ball, N. D., and Price- Jones, C: /. Path. 6" Bad., 29, 27. 1926; 30, 45. 1927. 

 " Jordan, E. O. : he. cit. 



" Herz, A., and Trawinski, A.: Wien. klin. Wchnschr., 30, 524. 1917. 

 ■3 Meyer, K. F., and Matsumara, K.: J. Infect. Dis., 41, 395. 1927. 

 ''* Gheorghiu, I.: Ann. de I'Inst. Pasteur, 39, 712. 1925. 's Price- Jones, C: loc. cit. 



