Sanitation 507 



as measured by the specific increase in pneumococcus 

 opsonin. The injection of such autolyzed pneumococci into 

 25 patients with lobar pneumonia seemed to have a marked 

 beneficial effect. 



Sanitation. Pneumonia is undoubtedly a contagious 

 disease. Exactly how infection takes place is not known, 

 but seeing that the infectious agent is in the respiratory tract, 

 from which it is easily discharged into the atmosphere during 

 cough, etc., and the facility with which it can then be inhaled 

 by those nearby, it seems justifiable to conclude that the 

 primary entrance of the organism into the body is through 

 the respiratory tract. Wood* has shown that " the organ- 

 isms in the sputum do hot remain long in suspension and die 

 off rapidly under the action of light and desiccation. In 

 sunlight or diffuse daylight the bacteria in such powder die 

 within an hour, and in about four hours if kept in the dark. 

 The danger of infection from powdered sputum may, there- 

 fore, be avoided by ample illumination and ventilation of the 

 sick-room in order to destroy or dilute the bacteria, and by 

 the avoidance of dry sweeping or dusting. Articles which 

 may be contaminated and which cannot be cleaned by cloths 

 dampened in a suitable disinfectant should be removed from 

 the patient's vicinty. 



PNEUMOCOCCUS (FRIEDLANDER) BACTERIUM PNEUMONIA 

 (ZOPFJ) BACILLUS CAPSULATUS Mucosus (FASCHINGJ). 



General Characteristics. An encapsulated, non-motile, non-flag- 

 ellated, non-sporogenous, non-liquefying, aerobic and optionally anaer- 

 obic, non-chromogenic, aerogenic and pathogenic bacillus, staining by 

 ordinary methods, but not by Gram's method. 



This organism was discovered by Friedlander in 1883 in 

 the pulmonary exudate from a case of croupous pneumo- 

 nia, and, being thought by its discoverer to be the cause of 

 that disease, was called the pneumococcus, and later the 

 pneumobacillus. The grounds upon which the specificity of 

 the organism was supposed to depend were soon found to 

 be insufficient, and the organism of Friedlander is at pres- 

 ent looked upon as one whose presence in the lung is, in 



* "Jour. Exp. Med.," Aug. 25, 1905, vn, No. 5, p. 624. 



f "Spaltpilze," 1885, p. 66. 



t "Centralbl. f. Bakt.," etc., xn, 1892, p. 304. 



"Fortshritte der Medizin," 1883, 22, 715. 



