428 APPLICATION OF METHODS OF BACTERIOLOGY 



has very little tenacity of life outside of the diseased body. 

 It is destroyed in from two to three hours by rapid drying, 

 and in from eight to twenty-four hours when dried more 

 slowly. Cultures retain their vitality for from two to three 

 weeks. The organism dies in water in a little over a day. 

 As a result of these observations, Pfeiffer did not believe 

 the disease to be disseminated by either the air or the water, 

 but rather by direct infection from the catarrhal secretions 

 of the patients. During the outbreak of 1918 this opinion 

 received additional confirmation, though some of the disease 

 spread among army troops at that time is believed to have 

 been referable to dirty eating utensils, infected food residue 

 and lack of facilities for or care in the proper conduct of 

 kitchens and mess-rooms. 



This organism has not been found outside of the human 

 body. In the influenza patient it is present very early, 

 practically with the advent of symptoms, in the catarrhal 

 secretions from the upper air passages and lungs. It may 

 be demonstrated microscopically in the mucus by cover- 

 slip preparations made in the usual way and stained with 

 diluted carbol-fuchsin, referred to above. In the tissues 

 it may be' demonstrated in sections stained in the same 

 solution. In the sputum the bacteria are found as masses 

 and as scattered cells. (See Fig. 76.) They are also found 

 within the bodies of leukocytes, especially in the later 

 stages of the disease when convalescence has set in; at 

 this time they appear as very small, irregular, evidently 

 degenerated bacteria within white blood corpuscles. They 

 are also present in the nasal secretions. 



At autopsies it is advisable to cut out pieces of the diseased 

 tissue about the size of a pea or a bean, break them up in 

 a small quantity of sterile water or bouillon, and make the 



