434 



THE BACILLUS OF TYPHOID FEVER. 



ply in the spleen after death, and that numerous colonies may be 

 found in portions of the organ which have been kept for twenty- 

 four to forty-eight hours before they were placed in alcohol, when 

 other pieces from the same spleen placed in alcohol soon after the 

 death of the patient show but few colonies or none at all. 



This observation does not in any way weaken the evidence as to 

 the etiological role of the bacillus, but simply shows that dead ani- 

 mal matter is a suitable nidus for the typhoid germ a fact which 

 has been repeatedly demonstrated by epidemiologists and insisted 

 upon by sanitarians. 



The authors last referred to confirm Gaffky as regards the con- 

 stant presence of the bacillus in the spleen. In twenty-nine cases 

 they obtained it by plate cultures twenty-five times, and remark 

 that in the four cases attended with a negative result this result is 



FIG. 104. 



FIG. 105. 



not at all surprising, inasmuch as the typhoid process had termi- 

 nated and death resulted from complications. 



Gaffky did not succeed in obtaining cultures from the blood of 

 typhoid-fever patients, and concludes from his researches that if the 

 bacilli are present in the circulating fluid it must be in very small 

 numbers. He remarks that possibly the result would be different if 

 the blood were drawn directly from a vein instead of from the capil- 

 laries of the skin. Friinkel and Simmonds also report that gelatin, 

 to which blood drawn from the forefinger of typical cases had been 

 added, remained sterile when poured upon plates in the usual man- 

 ner Koch's method. The blood was obtained from six different in- 

 dividuals, all in an early stage of the disease the second to the 

 third week. A similar experiment made with blood obtained, post 

 mortem, from the large veins or from the heart, also gave a negative 

 result in every instance save one. In the exceptional case a single 



