330 BACTERIOLOGY. 



tried to show that " croup " and pharyngeal diphthe- 

 ria were different diseases, or, in bacteriological terms, 

 due to different micro-organisms, and this subject re- 

 mained under controversy until it was recently settled 

 that while most cases were undoubtedly due, at least 

 to a great extent, to diphtheria bacilli, a few were not. 



Bard, an American, supported, in 1771, the opposite 

 theory from Home, considering the process the same 

 wherever located. In this ground he was much nearer 

 to the facts than Home. His observations upon diph- 

 theria were very important and accurate. 



In 1821, Bretoaneau published his first essay on diph- 

 theria in Paris and gave to the disease its present name. 

 His observations were so extensive and so correct that 

 little advance in knowledge took place until the causal 

 relations of the diphtheria bacilli and their associated 

 micro-organisms to the disease began to be recognized. 

 Since then the combined clinical, bacteriological, and 

 pathological studies have sufficed to make diphtheria 

 one of the best understood of diseases. 



The Bacillus. In the year 1883 bacilli which were 

 very peculiar and striking in appearance were shown 

 by Klebs to be of constant occurrence in the pseudo- 

 membranes from the throats of those dying of true 

 epidemic diphtheria. One year later Loftier published 

 the results of a very thorough and extensive series of 

 investigations on this subject. He found the bacillus 

 described by Klebs in many cases of throat inflam- 

 mations which had been diagnosticated as diphthe- 

 ria. He separated these bacilli from the other bac- 

 teria present and obtained them in pure culture. When 

 he inoculated the bacilli upon the abraded mucous mem- 

 brane of susceptible animals, more or less characteristic 



