APPENDIX 



III. THE INFLUENZA BACIL 



Drs. Pfeiffer, Kitasato, and Canon have (inde- 

 pendently of one another) discovered the influenza 

 microbe. It has been found in the saliva and the 

 bronchial discharges characteristic of influenza. It 

 exists in the form of small rodlets, strung together in 

 threads. It grows in agar-agar and sugar, or in agar- 

 agar and glycerine. In the saliva of influenza patients, 

 the bacilli are found in large numbers; they may 

 penetrate from the pus cells into the tissue of the 

 lungs, and even pass as far as the surface of the pleura. 

 This fact explains the rapidity and fatality of lung 

 complications in influenza. The same bacillus has also 

 been found in the blood of patients suffering from the 

 disease. 



The knowledge that a bacillus residing in the saliva 

 causes influenza will not cure the epidemic; but the 

 prompt and practical application of this knowledge by 

 complete disinfection of all bronchial and nasal secre- 

 tions, and the isolation of influenza patients will 

 arrest the plague. It also indicates the reasonableness 

 of what is known as the carbolic acid treatment of 

 influenza, which has been practised with considerable 

 success, especially in the early stages of the disease. 



IV. BACILLUS PLUVIATILIS. 



The author 1 discovered this microbe in rain-water, 

 contained in a barrel, and exposed to the air during 

 certain mild weeks in the winter of 1890. At this 

 period of the year, the majority of the other microbes 

 in the water were in an inactive condition, con- 



1 Dr. A. B. Griffiths, Bulletin de la Societe Chimique de Pari, 

 1892, 3 e s^rie, tome vii. p. 332. 



