CHAPTER X. 



ACUTE CONTAGIOUS CONJUNCTIVITIS. 



THE KOCH-WEEKS BACILLUS. 



General Characteristics. A minute, slender bacillus, non-motile, 

 non-flagellated, non-sporogenous, non-liquefying, non-chromogenic, 

 aerobic, and optionally anaerobic, staining by the ordinary methods 

 but not by Gram's method, susceptible of cultivation upon special 

 media only, and specific for acute contagious conjunctivitis. 



Acute contagious conjunctivitis is a common and world- 

 wide affection, sometimes called "pink eye," and sometimes 

 erroneously called catarrhal conjunctivitis. All its char- 

 acteristics, and especially its contagiousness, point to its 

 being a specific disease due to a specific cause, and thus 

 entirely different from ordinary non-specific catarrh. 



Specific Micro=organism. The first bacteriologic inves- 

 tigation of acute contagious conjunctivitis was made by 

 Robert Koch,* when in Egypt investigating a cholera 

 epidemic. While in Alexandria he examined the secretions 

 from 50 cases of conjunctivitis, finding the gonococcus, 

 or an organism closely resembling it. In a less severe form 

 of the disease, however, he found a peculiar small bacillus. 

 He seemed satisfied with this observation, or had no time to 

 pursue the matter farther, for no cultivation or other ex- 

 periments are mentioned. 



The organism was observed from time to time, but no 

 serious consideration seems to have been devoted to it until 

 Weeks f published an account of what seemed to be the identi- 

 cal organism, which he not only observed, but alsp cultivated, 

 and eventually successfully inoculated into the human con- 

 junctiva. In the same year Kartulis| in Alexandria suc- 

 ceeded in cultivating the same organism. In 1894 Morax 

 published a brochure in Paris in which he says that "the 

 disease [which he describes under the name of acute con- 



* "Wiener klin. Wochenschrift," 1883, p. 1550. 

 t "N. Y. Med. Record," May 21, 1887. 

 t "Centralbl. f. Bakt. u. Parasitenk.," 1887, p. 289. 

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