32 



Among the workers who found this bacillus without delay 

 must first be named its discoverer. 



R. Pfeiffer (3) (see also Leiciitentritt (1)), on the 27. VI. 1918 

 immediately after influenza appeared in a small hospital in Silesia, 

 found the bacillus in 4 out of the first 5 cases examined .sometimes 

 in enormous quantities. In some other cases however it could not 

 be demonstrated. 



The investigations were continued by Leiciitentritt (1) (Bres- 

 lau) who in the course of the summer and autumn of 1918 found 

 Pfeiffer's bacillus in 155 out of 289 samples of sputum from in- 

 fluenza etc., in 24 out of 36 autopsies on influenzal pneumonia, 

 and in 58 out of 228 samples of sputum from cases of phthisis. It 

 was further found in influenza 5 times in the spleen and 3 times 

 in the brain. 



Leichtfntritt's work was continued by Loeweniiardt (1,2), 

 who from the early days of 1919 to March 1920 found Pfeiffer's 

 bacillus in 122 out of 160 samples of influenzal sputum, in 65 out 

 of 125 throat cultures from influenza patients, in 32 out of 53 autopsies 

 on influenzal pneumonia, in 19 out of 179 samples of tuberculous 

 sputum, and in 16 out of 218 samples of sputum from other diseases 

 of the respiratory organs. In cultures from the throats of 62 healthy 

 persons it was found in 2 only, and both fell sick with influenza 

 2 days later. 



Loewenhardt compares in the form of curves the incidence 

 of influenza in the summer epidemic 1918, in the autumn epidemic 

 of the same year and in the epidemic in Jan.— March 1920 with 

 the absolute number of findings of Pfeiffer's bacillus in patients 

 at different dates and finds on the whole an excellent agreement, 

 the positive findings being considerably more frequent during the 

 epidemics than ill the intervening periods. It is stated in I he text 

 that the relation between the number of positive findings and the 

 total number of examinations in the various periods varies in the 

 same direction as the absolute number of positive findings, but no 

 further details are given. 



The frequency of the presence of Pfeiffer's bacillus in patients 

 with other diseases than influenza decreased steadily from June— 

 December 1918 to January— March 1920. 



That Pfeiffer's bacillus was not constantly present in LEICHTEX- 

 tritt's and LoewenhARDT's material is explained by them as being 

 partly due to the fact that they were not sure of the diagnosis of in- 

 fluenza in all the cases and partly that the samples could not 

 always be dealt with as quickly as desirable. Thus Loeweniiardt, 

 in 45 throat cultures from influenza patients where the samples 

 were dealt with immediately after they were taken, found Pfeiffer's 

 bacillus in 41 cases, while it could only be discovered in about 

 30o/o of the cases if merely 3—4 hours passed from the time the 

 samples were taken to the time they were deposited in the incubator. 



