034 Typhoid Fever 



The bacillus gives up its color in the presence of almost any 

 solvent, so that it is particularly difficult to stain in tissue. 



When sections of tissue containing the typhoid bacilli 

 are to be stained, the best method is to allow them to remain 

 in Loffler's alkaline methylene-blue for from fifteen minutes 

 to twenty-four hours, then wash in water, dehydrate rapidly 

 in alcohol, clear up in xylol, and mount in Canada balsam, 

 Ziehl's method also gives good results: The sections are 

 stained for fifteen minutes in a solution of distilled water 

 100, fuchsin i, and phenol 5. After staining they are 

 washed in distilled water containing i per cent, of acetic 

 acid, dehydrated in alcohol, cleared, and mounted. In such 

 preparations the bacilli are always found in scattered groups, 

 which are easily discovered, under a low power of the mi- 

 croscope, as reddish specks, and readily resolved into bacilli 

 with the oil-immersion lens. 



In bacilli stained with the alkaline methylene-blue solu- 

 tion, dark-colored dots (Babes-Ernst or metachromatic 

 granules) may sometimes be observed near the ends of the 

 rods. 



The typhoid bacillus produces no endospores. 



Isolation^ The bacillus can be secured in pure culture 

 from an enlarged lymphatic gland or from the splenic pulp 

 of a case of typhoid. To secure it in this way the autopsy 

 should be made as soon after death as possible, lest the 

 colon bacillus invade the tissues, and cause confusing con- 

 taminations. 



As the groups of bacilli are sometimes widely scattered 

 throughout the spleen, B. Frankel recommends that as soon 

 as the organ is removed from the body it be wrapped in 

 cloths wet with a solution of bichlorid of mercury and kept 

 for three days in a warm room, in order that a considerable 

 and massive development of the bacilli may take place. The 

 surface is then seared with a hot iron and material for cultures 

 obtained by introducing a platinum loop into the substance 

 of the organ through the sterilized surface. 



Cultures of typhoid bacillus may be more easily obtained 

 from the blood of the living patients. (See "Blood culture, * 

 under the section "Bacteriologic Diagnosis.") 



The bacilli can also be secured, but with much less certainty, 

 from the alvine discharges of typhoid patients during the 

 second and third weeks of the disease. 



