474 



and Felix grew proteus-like bacilli from urine; Dienes managed to 

 grow from two clotiies-lice taken from a patient protens-iike bacilli, 

 resembling those of Weil-Felix. 



I will not attempt to criticize, as I am fully aware that one case 

 cannot yield conclusive evidence. Still, it favours the supposition 

 that in this patient the bacillus detected was indeed the cause of 

 the disease, which had been clinically diagnosed as "typhus ex- 

 anthematicus". Also in my investigations questions are still left 

 open, owing to lack of material. 



We now summarize our results: 



From the blood cultures were grown that may be called diplo- 

 bacilli on account of the form and the location. The colonies upon 

 agar look white with incident light and faint-bluish transparent with 

 transmitted light. They are detached from the agar surface and can 

 easilv be shifted bodily with a needle. 



The bacilli possess no motility, take up all dyes and their appear- 

 ance varies with the dye selected, (finer, coarser, granular, dumbbell- 

 or biscuitshaped^ They are Gram-positive (in older cultures occasionally 

 Gram-negative); they are non-acidproof ; they form no spores. 



No growth at room-temperature. Tardy growth at 22°. They grow 

 best at 37°. 



Gelatin is not liquefied; upon Löffler's serum there is only a 

 poor growth; milk does not coagulate; the bacilli do not form acid 

 nor indol. No fermentation in saccharose-, lactose-, mannite-, glycose-, 

 and raffinose-bouillon. 



After repeated inoculations the properties change. 



They are pathogenic for caviae (i.e. they cause a rise of tempe- 

 rature) [could again be cultivated from the blood of these caviae] 

 and render them immune. Through the serum of the patient himself 

 and that of another who was convalescent they were clumped in a 

 1:100 dilution; through the serum of a sufferer from another disease 

 and two sound persons only in a 1 : 25 dilution. 



In the digestive and intestinal tract of clothes-lice, taken from the 

 patient, organisms were found resembling the above-mentioned bacilli 

 and the Rickettsia Prowazeki of Da Rocha Lima. With them no 

 culture- nor animal-experiments could be made for want of material. 

 The Gram-staining was negative here. 



In the coverslips of the blood of the patient very rarely a single 

 diplobacillus was found. True, some forms were detected outside 

 the nucleus in some leucocytes that reminded us forcibly of the 

 above-mentioned organisms (also those in lice). 



The Amsterdam Public Health Service Bacteriological Laboratory . 



