8 DAVID J. DAVIS 



with an evident attempt on the part of some of the investigators to 

 exaggerate minor differences in order to be able to announce their 

 organism as "heretofore undescribed," have been responsible for the 

 resulting chaotic mass of data. 



However, there has been found with some degree of constancy, 

 in the sputum of patients, a small, short bacillus, often described 

 as influenza-like, both in smears and in culture; and it may be further 

 stated that, with few exceptions, it has been a Gram-negative organ- 

 ism. Further than this one finds little harmony in the results. The 

 organism described by Spengler and by Jochmann and Krause grew 

 only on hemoglobin media. Those described by Luzzatto and 

 Elmassian grew in human serous fluids, and as these fluids often 

 contain small amounts of hemoglobin, these latter organisms are 

 probably the same as those described by Spengler and by Jochmann 

 and Krause. Jochmann considers his organism different from that 

 described by Spengler because of certain minor morphological differ- 

 ences. There is no doubt but that both are dealing with the same 

 organism, as Spengler has very emphatically contended. The later 

 findings of Smit and Wollstein strongly emphasize the significance 

 of this organism. Just what organism Czaplewski and Hensel, 

 Arnheim, Reyher, and some others, have been dealing with is very 

 difficult to say. After reading their articles one is inclined to question, 

 as Spengler did, whether or not they were dealing with a pure culture. 

 Their varying reports concerning its reaction to Gram's stain, its 

 morphology (Arnheim), and the questionable methods used in obtain- 

 ing pure cultures, make one suspicious of the whole work. It is 

 probable that they have been dealing with the same organism as that 

 which Spengler and Jochmann described. This organism will grow, 

 for a few generations at least, on non-hemoglobin media if another 

 organism is present with which it may grow in symbiosis. There- 

 fore, if sputum is smeared on such media as Czaplewski used, the 

 Spengler- Jochmann organism will grow because there are always 

 other organisms present. But it is a difficult matter to obtain it in 

 pure culture, and Czaplewski and Reyher speak of the trouble they 

 had in this respect. 



No one has found an organism, either before or since Manicatide's 

 report, that corresponds to that described by him. This is all the 



