472 



the screw of the microscope it seems as if the point is shifted a 

 little, so that it may be taken for a rodlet slightly inclined fiom 

 the vertical. However this may be, it is at any late remarkable to 

 observe the resemblance in the shape of the bacilli found in the 

 first fluids, the bacilli cultivated, the bacilli in the intestinal tract of 

 the clothes-lice and the bodies (such I think they may be called) 

 in the white blood corpuscles of the patiënt. Besides these shapes 

 in the leucocytes I also, though rarely, detected a diplobacillus in 

 the coverslips, after a prolonged research. 



It must be observed that not in all the fluid tubes bacilli were 

 found, although they all contained blood from the same syringe 

 (with a control for an aseptic operation). They were found ordy in 

 those tubes in which the fluid was hypotonic relating to the blood; 

 it should also be observed that after some subcultures, the cultivation 

 was considerably easier and the intervals between two successive 

 cultures could be lengthened ; again, that the bacilli then seemed to 

 be less closely packed together and less pathogenic. 



It is worth while to compare this finding with those of other 

 researchers with numerous material. 



In my judgment there is a great resemblance between the organisms 

 found by da Rocha Lima and Töpfer in the body of lice, without 

 their being able to cultivate them, and those demonstrated by me. 

 Owing to lack of material I was not in a position to perform 

 sections in order to observe, the different epithelial cells, as described 

 by DA Rocha Lima and was limited to coverslips only. This may 

 account for my organisms lying free in the field of view. Entire 

 epithelial cells I did not see, only fragments of them. 



I am personaly inclined to think after consulting the literature, 

 accessible to me, that the bacilli detected by us when compared 

 with cultures grown by various experimenters resemble most those 

 of Rabinowitsch. For the sake of brevity I shall not pass in review 

 all the researches and only refer to the extensive publications of 

 Rabinowitsch, who comes to this final conclusion, that in reality all 

 investigators have found one and the same organism, viz. short 

 shapes growing in pairs. The slight deviations recorded, are owing 

 to the different methods of staining. The properties also agree rather 

 well. This is also the case with the bacilli cultivated by me. Only 

 the description of the agar-colonies do not apply to my cultures. 

 According to him they first resemble colonies of streptococci (dew 

 drop) and afterwards assume a pale yellow colour. My colonies are 

 compact, while and remain so. With incident light they remind one 

 of colonies of staphylococci. For the rest they are not at all like them. 



