BACTERIOLOGY OF WHOOPING-COUGH 7 



morphologically, culturally, or by immunization experiments. They grew well through 

 many generations with living B. xerosis, but not with the dead organisms or their 

 extracts. 



Manicatide 2 found a short, thick, Gram-staining bacillus capable of growing on 

 ordinary media in 67 out of 80 cases, and says it is different from any organism pre- 

 viously described. Animal experiments gave negative results. He immunized three 

 sheep and two horses, and obtained a distinct agglutination at a dilution of 1:32. 

 He treated 89 cases with the immune serum, and claims that it cures cases not over 15 

 days old in from 2 to 12 days. For the above reasons, he considers this germ the 

 specific cause of the disease. 



Smit3 found, in 24 cases, Jochmann's B. pertussis Eppendorf constantly. Neither 

 blood serum of patients nor the serum of a horse or goats immunized to this organism 

 had any agglutinative properties. In rabbits, by inoculation with this organism, he 

 obtained lameness and a general infection, and also produced a conjunctivitis with the 

 bacilli in the exudate. He treated nine patients with immunized horse serum with no 

 perceptible effect. In 18 cases he failed to find Manicatide's bacillus in a single 

 instance. With the bacillus which he obtained from Manicatide, he obtained some 

 agglutination with the blood serum of pertussis patients. He does not consider either 

 Jochmann's bacillus or Manicatide's bacillus as the cause of the disease. 



Very recently Martha Wollstein4 isolated from 29 out of 30 cases a bacillus identi- 

 cal with that described by Spengler and Jochmann. This organism was agglutinated 

 by serum of pertussis patients at dilutions of i : 200, and sometimes at i : 500. With 

 normal serum, the tests all gave negative results above dilutions of 1:10. With influ- 

 enza bacilli, the serum of pertussis patients did not react in dilutions higher that i : 20. 

 Serum from rabbits immunized with the pertussis organism gave positive agglutina- 

 tion tests with the same organism at dilutions of 1:500, with the influenza organism 

 at i : 200. Serum from animals immunized with influenza bacilli agglutinated the 

 influenza organism at i : 200 and the pertussis organism at i : 50. Absorption tests 

 with immunized sera also showed marked reduction in agglutinins after a saturation 

 with the bacilli. She concludes that the pertussis organism belongs to the influenza 

 group, but can be differentiated from B. influenzae by agglutination reactions with the 

 blood of patients and immune animals. Morphologically it is slightly larger than the 

 influenza bacillus. 



Conclusions jrom literature. In summing up the literature on per- 

 tussis the most striking feature is the lack of unity in the results. The 

 work of the earlier investigators is of little value, because bacterio- 

 logical technique at that time was so little developed. Undoubtedly 

 the chief reason for the diversity of results lies in the variety of the 

 methods employed. Lack of knowledge of the normal flora of mouth 

 and throat also has probably had much to do with the variety of results 

 obtained. Many of the investigators have not at all appreciated the 

 importance of careful control of their results. These facts, together 



1 Deutsche med. Wchnschr., 1903, 29, p. 462. Ztschr. }. Hyg., 1904, 45. P- 469- 



3 Bacteriologische Onderzoekingen bij Kinkhoest, Thesis, Amsterdam, 1905. 

 * Jour, of Exper. Med., 1905, 7, p. 335 



