Cultivation 449 



and Veasy,* Alt,f and others found the same diplobacillus in 

 America, and many others confirmed the observations in 

 various parts of Europe. It has also been found in Egypt. 

 There is no doubt, therefore, but that this is a widely distrib- 

 uted organism. Morax produced the disease by placing a 

 pure culture of the organism upon the human conjunctiva. 

 He was unable to infect any of the lower animals. 



In this subacute form of conjunctivitis there is very little 

 secretion, and to secure the micro-organism either for micro- 

 scopic examination or for cultivation recourse must be had to 

 minute flakes of grayish mucus that collect upon the caruncle. 



Fig. 141. The Morax-Axenfeld diplobacillus of conjunctivitis. Magni- 

 fied 1000 diameters (Rymowitsch and Matschinsky. 



Morphology. The bacillus is small, commonly occurs in 

 pairs or chains. It measures approximately 2 [i in length. 

 It is not motile, has no flagella, and forms no spores. It is 

 somewhat pleomorphous. Involution forms soon appear in 

 artificial cultures. 



Staining. The organism stains by ordinary methods, but 

 does not stain by Gram's method. 



Cultivation. The organism grows only upon alkaline 

 blood-serum or upon culture-media containing blood-serum. 

 Morax made his original observation by using Lffler's 

 blood-serum mixture. The colonies appear in twenty-four 

 hours at 37 C. The blood-serum is almost immediately 



* " Ophthalmological Record," 1899. 

 t "Amer. Jour, of Ophthalmology," 1898, p. 171. 

 29 



