TYPHOID FEVER 131 



which was confined to a certain ward of Chicago, was in large 

 measure due to flies acting as carriers of the specific bacilH. In 

 the same year Ficker (1903) briefly stated that he had isolated 

 B. typhosus from flies caught in a house in Leipzig in which eight 

 cases of t}'phoid had occurred. Klein (190S, p. 1 150, footnote) 

 examined 12 living flies caught by Wilshaw in a row of houses 

 in which typhoid had occurred. The flies " were minced in 

 a sterile dish with ^ cm. of sterile salt solution. The whole of 

 the resulting turbid fluid was used for cultures." In each plate 

 he found two or three t}'phoid-like colonies. " These agreed in 

 all respects culturally with the stock B. typhosus, including 

 distinct agglutination in 10 minutes with a i : 50 dilution of anti- 

 typhoid serum, but in litmus glucose bile salt peptone water pro- 

 duced acid and ' ver}' slight gas after three days.' " Odium (1908) 

 briefly states that he isolated B. typhosus from two flies out of 

 several hundreds at Nasirabad (see p. 139). Bertarelli (1910) 

 made a more extensive investigation on 120 flies caught in an 

 Italian house in which several cases of typhoid had occurred. 

 He isolated B. typhosus from the bodies of eight flies, proving 

 their identity by cultural and agglutination tests. 



On this subject the most interesting investigations are those 

 of Faichnie (1909) and Cochrane (1912), whose observations are 

 fully quoted. 



Faichnie (1909) investigated a small outbreak of typhoid at 

 Kamptee, and, after excluding all other sources, was obliged to 

 suspect the flies. They were not very numerous. About 40 

 were collected, 20 each from the verandahs of the artiller}^ and 

 infantry kitchens. 



"Twelve flies from the artillery lines were mashed up in sterile normal salt 

 solution and a drop plated, with the result that B. typhosus was separated. This 

 bacillus was agglutinated by a solution of i — 10,000 of a specific B. typhosus serum" 

 and gave the usual reactions on various media. "Also 12 flies from the infantry 

 kitchen were treated as follows : Each was transfixed with a sterile needle, and 

 passed two or three times through a flame, until the legs and wings were scorched ; 

 they were then put into normal salt solution and stirred without breaking with a glass 

 rod. One c.c. of this solution was seeded into MacConkey broth which remained 

 unchanged thereby showing the absence of B. typhosus on the legs and wings after 

 burning. After this the flies were mashed up and a drop of the fluid plated. 

 B. typhosus, as above, was again found, thereby demonstrating that the bacillus was 

 present in the intestine, but not on the legs." 



9—2 



