424 APPLICATION OF METHODS OF BACTERIOLOGY 



It sometimes happens that in guinea-pigs which have 

 been inoculated with this organism local pus-formations 

 result, instead of a general septicemia. The organisms will 

 then be found in the pus-cavity. 



BACTERIUM INFLUENZA (E. PFEIFFER), LEHMANN 

 AND NEUMANN, 1896. 



SYNONYM: Influenza bacillus, R. Pfeiffer, 1892. 



Influenza is one of the important historic epidemic 

 diseases, on the nature of which much light has been shed 

 through modern methods of investigation. Quoting Hirsch: 

 the first trustworthy literary records that we have of 

 this disease date from the early part of the twelfth century. 



Between 1173 and 1874 it made its epidemic or pan- 

 demic appearance on eighty-six different occasions. Its 

 first recorded appearance in this country was in Massa- 

 chusetts in 1672; since that time there have been twenty- 

 two visitations of influenza in the United States. The pan- 

 demic of 1889-90, to that date the most severe for a long 

 time, appears to have originated in Central Asia and to 

 have spread pretty much over the entire civilized world; that 

 of 1918 also seems to have had its origin somewhere in the 

 Orient and to have spread along lines of traffic, principally 

 by human contact. 



The advent of influenza in a community is always remark- 

 able for its astonishing rate of transmission from person to 

 person and its dissemination over wide areas. 



During the pandemic of 1889-90 investigations having 

 for their object the discovery of its cause, resulted in demon- 

 strating in the catarrhal secretions from the air passages a 



