36 



the patient, and the autopsies were performed a few hours after 

 death. 



As a further proof of the inconstant occurrence of Pfeif- 

 fer's bacillus in contradistinction to Park's contributions, exam- 

 ples can be cited of the same investigator being able simul- 

 taneously to demonstrate this microbe in one group of patients 

 but not in another. 



Prell asserts that Pribram could only demonstrate Pfeiffer's 

 bacillus in the patients of one certain hospital among four, and that 

 Vagedes only found it in one army on the West Front and not 

 in another. 



Th.it Pfeiffer's bacillus usually occurred very widely di- 

 stributed in the later stages of the pandemic is evident from 

 the innumerable papers, of which only a few will be referred 

 to and mainly those that shed some light upon the various 

 specific problems. 



Olsen (1,2) (Hamburg) found Pfeiffer's bacillus 166 times out 

 of 220 autopsies on influenzal pneumonia cases. A number of the 

 positive cases were in the summer months of 1918. (This is also 

 reported by Olsen's Chief, Simmonds). Pfeiffer's bacillus often oc- 

 curred in considerable numbers and not infrequently almost in pure 

 culture. It was found principally in fresh pneumonic infiltrations, 

 but it could be obtained also in cases examined post mortem even 

 2 — 3 months after the beginning of the disease. 



Pfeiffer's bacillus was found much less often by Graetz and 

 Schottmuller who likewise carried out their investigations in Ham- 

 burg. Schottmuller examined the sputum of several hundred 

 influenza patients. He made particular point of obtaining it as 

 far as possible in the first few days of the disease and it was 

 examined immediately after it was coughed up, He also controlled 

 the suitability of his medium partly by showing that a pure cul- 

 ture of Pfeiffer's bacillus would always grow well on it, md also 

 that when Pfeiffer's bacillus had once been grown from the sputum 

 of a patient it could easily be demonstrated again by a fresh cul- 

 tivation. Before the pandemic Schottmuller also found Pfeiffer's ba- 

 cillus very frequently in necrotic foci in the lungs of children 

 who had died of whooping-cough and measles. 



It is difficult to assign a cause to these rather divergent re- 

 sults from the same town. 



In addition to Mc Clelland the following authors among 

 others found Pfeiffer's bacillus in almost all cases examined: 



