THE BACILLUS OF TYPHOID FEVER. 435 



colony developed upon the plate. In view of these results we are 

 inclined to attribute the successful attempts reported by some of the 

 earlier experimenters (Letzerich, Almquist, Maragliano) to accidental 

 contamination and imperfect methods of research. The more recent 

 work of Tayon does not inspire any greater confidence. This author 

 obtained cultures in bouillon by inoculating it with blood drawn 

 from a typhoid patient, and found that these were fatal, in a few 

 hours, to guinea-pigs, when injected into the peritoneal cavity. The 

 lesions observed are said to have resembled those of typhoid fever 

 congestion and tumefaction of Peyer's plaques and of the mesenteric 

 glands, congestion of the liver, the kidneys, etc. 



The presence of the bacillus of Eberth in the alvine evacuations of 

 typhoid patients has been demonstrated by Pfeiffer and by Frankel 

 and Simmonds. This demonstration is evidently not an easy mat- 

 ter, for while the bacilli are probably always present in some portion 

 of the intestine during the progress of the disease, it does not follow 

 that they are present in every portion of the intestinal contents. As 

 only a very small amount of material is used in making plate cul- 

 tures, and as there are at all times a multitude of bacteria of various 

 species in the smallest portion of faecal matter, it is not to be ex- 

 pected that the typhoid bacillus will be found upon every plate. 

 Frankel and Simmonds made eleven attempts to obtain the bacillus 

 by the plate method, using three plates each time, as is customary 

 with those who adhere strictly to the directions of the master, and 

 were successful in obtaining the bacillus in three instances in two 

 in great numbers and in the third in a very limited number of colo- 

 nies. 



The numerous attempts which have been made to communicate 

 typhoid fever to the lower animals have given a negative result in 

 every instance. Murchison, in 1867, fed typhoid-fever discharges to 

 swine, and Klein has made numerous experiments of the same kind 

 upon apes, dogs, cats, guinea-pigs, rabbits, and white mice, without 

 result. Birch-Hirschfeld, in 1874, by feeding large quantities of 

 typhoid stools to rabbits, produced in some of them symptoms which 

 in some respects resembled those of typhoid ; but these experiments 

 were repeated by Bahrdt upon ten rabbits with an entirely negative 

 result. Von Motschukoffsky met with no better success in his at- 

 tempts to induce the disease by injecting blood from typhoid patients 

 into apes, rabbits, dogs, and cats. Walder also experimented with 

 fresh and with putrid discharges from typhoid patients, and with 

 blood taken from the body after death, feeding this material to 

 calves, dogs, cats, rabbits, and fowls, without obtaining any posi- 

 tive results. Klebs has also made numerous experiments of a simi- 

 lar nature, and in a single instance found in a rabbit, which died 



