

748 INFECTION AND IMMUNITY. 



and influenza-like bacilli are found in the sputum 

 in various conditions; hence, there is insufficient 

 reason to associate such organisms with the etiol- 

 ogy of measles. The micrococci found by Lasage 

 (1900) have not received recognition as the cause 

 of the disease. 



Measles is highly contagious, even during the 

 prodromal stage. The contagion doubtless is ex- 

 creted from the lungs as well as the skin, and, in 

 view of the early bronchial symptoms,, the virus 

 probably gains entrance through the lungs. Suc- 

 cessful inoculation into man with blood taken 

 from the involved skin shows that the virus exists 

 in the circulation of the skin. Hektoen doubts 

 the decisiveness of a number of these experiments 

 since they were carried out in the presence of 

 epidemics and natural infection could not be ex- 

 cluded; at the same time he does not question the 

 results of Mayr (1852) . In two experiments on mau 

 Hektoen determined the presence of the virus in the 

 blood. "The results of these two experiments per- 

 mit the conclusion that the virus of measles is 

 present in the blood of patients with typical 

 measles some time at least during the first 30 

 hours of the eruption; furthermore, that the virus 

 retains its virulence for at least 24 hours when 

 such blood is inoculated into ascites-broth and kept 

 at 37 C. This demonstration shows that it is 

 not difficult to obtain the virus of measles unmixed 

 with other microbes and in such form that it may 

 be studied by various methods." The virus is 

 much less resistant than that of scarlet fever. The 

 varying grades of severity of different epidemics 

 show that it is subject to alteration in its virulence. 



