May 29, 1890] 



NATURE 



parallax (jt) of a star can be immediately deduced if its velocity 

 (V) in miles per second in the line of sight has been determined 

 by observation. The advantages to be expected from spectro- 

 graphic observations of double stars for which jtV is greater 

 than o'l are shown to be : — 



(i) An independent check on the parallax where this has been 

 determined trigonometrically. 



(2) A determination of the parallax where, owing to its 

 smallness, the trigonometrical method fails, 



(3) A determination of the sign of the inclination which will 

 remove the ambiguity attaching to the situation of the orbit. 



It is to be hoped that astronomers who have the requisite 

 instruments for this kind of observation may be induced to take 

 up what appears to be a promising field of work. 



Turin Observatory. — We have received various publica- 

 tions from the Observatory of the Royal University of Turin. 

 Amongst them we find convenient ephemerides of the sun and 

 moon for 1889 and for 1890 calculated for the horizon of Torino 

 by Sefiors Porro and Aschieri respectively, and a note by the 

 former observer on the total eclipse of the moon on January 28, 

 1888. The difference of longitude between the meridian circle 

 at Turin Observatory and Milan Observatory has also been 

 redetermined. The value found in 1823 was 5m. 58-855., and 

 the value now found is 5m. 58736 ± o-oo6 ; thus the difference 

 between the two observations is only o'lis., although the former 

 was not made by telegraphy. 



A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ETIOLOGY OF 

 DIPHTHERIA} 



'T'HE microbe, which was first described by Klebs (at the 

 Wiesbaden Congress in 1883), then isolated and grown in 

 artificial cultures by Loffler {Mitth. aiis dem K. Gesundheitsamtc, 

 vol. ii.) from human diphtheritic membrane, was shown by this 

 observer to act virulently on various animals. The Klebs-Loffler 

 bacillus — by which name the diphtheria microbe is known — is 

 the one with which also Koux and Yersin {Annales de rinstitut 

 Pastetir, ii., 1888, No. 12) obtained positive results on guinea- 

 pigs. 



In the Reports of the Medical Officer of the Local Government 

 Board for 1888-89 and 1889-90, I have shown that there occur 

 in diphtheritic membranes two species of bacilli, very similar in 

 morphological respects, and also in cultures on serum and on 

 agar, but differing from one another in this, that one species, 

 Klebs-Loffler bacillus No. i, is not constant in' diphtheritic 

 membranes, does not grow on solid gelatine at i9°-20° C, and 

 does not act pathogenically on animals ; the other species, Klebs- 

 Loffler bacillus No. 2, is constant in diphtheritic membranes, in 

 fact is present even in the deeper layers of the membranes in 

 great masses and almost in pure culture, acts very virulently on 

 animals, and grows well on gelatine at 19°- 20° C. Loffler, and 

 after him other observers (Fliigge, "Die Mikroorganismen," 

 1886), considered it as a character of the diphtheria bacillus that 

 it does not grow on gelatine below 22" C, but tliis character, 

 though true of the Klebs-Loffler species No. I, does not appertain 

 to the diphtheria bacillus species No. 2. In fact, there is no 

 difficulty in obtaining pure cultures of this bacillus on gelatine if 

 a particle of diphtheritic membrane be taken and well shaken in 

 two or three successive lots of sterile salt solution, and from the 

 last lot plate cultivations on gelatine are made. In this way I 

 have obtained the diphtheria bacillus in great numbers of colonies 

 and in pure culture. Zarniko {Centralbl . f. Bakleriol. u. Parasit., 

 vol. vi., 1889, p. 154) and Escherich {ibid., vol. vii., 1890, p. 8) 

 both state that the diphtheria bacillus does grow on gelatine 

 below 20° C. 



This bacillus diphtherise acts very virulently on guinea-pigs 

 on subcutaneous inoculation ; at the seat of the injection a 

 tumour is produced, which in its pathology and in microscopic 

 sections completely resembles the diphtheritic tissue of the 

 human. In human diphtheria the diphtheria bacillus is present 

 only in the diphtheritic membrane, but neither in the blood nor 

 in the diseased viscera ; the same holds good for the experi- 

 mental guinea-pigs. In subcutaneous inoculation with artificial 

 culture, though it causes in these animals acute disease and 



'Paper read before the Royal Society by Dr. E. Klein, F.R.S., on May 

 82. Ihis research was undertaken for the Medical Department of the Local 

 Government Board, and was communicated to the Royal Society with the 

 permission of the Medical Officer. 



NO. 1074, VOL. 42] 



death — the lungs, intestine, and kidney are greatly congested — 

 the diphtheria bacillus remains limited to the seat of inoculation. 

 It was for these reasons that Loffler concluded that in diphtheria 

 the diphtheritic membrane alone is the seat of the multiplication 

 of the diphtheria bacillus, and that here a chemical poison is 

 produced, which absorbed into the system causes the general 

 diseased condition and eventually death. Roux and Yersin 

 have then separated from artificial broth cultures the bacilli and 

 the chemical products, and, by the injection of these latter alone 

 into guinea-pigs, have produced a general effect. I have in this 

 year's Report to the Medical Officer of the Local Government 

 Board (1889-90) shown that in these experiments of injection of 

 cultures into guinea-pigs, an active multiplication of the diph- 

 theria bacilli at the seat of inoculation can be demonstrated by 

 culture experiments ; from the local diphtheritic tumour and the 

 nearest lymph glands the diphtheria bacilli can be obtained in 

 pure culture on gelatine. 



On various occasions during the last three years information, 

 has reached me by Health Officers (Dr. Downes, Mr. Shirley 

 Murphy, Dr. Thursfield) as to a curious relation existing between 

 a mysterious cat disease and human diphtheria in this manner, 

 that a cat or cats were taken ill with a pulmonary disease, and 

 while ill were nursed by children, and then these latter sickened 

 with well-marked diphtheria. Or children were taken ill with 

 diphtheria, and either at the same time or afterwards the cat or 

 cats sickened. The disease in the cat was described as an acute 

 lung trouble ; the animals were quiet, did not feed, and seemed 

 not to be able to swallow ; in some cases they recovered, in 

 others they became emaciated, while the lung trouble increased, 

 and ultimately they died. In one instance— in the north of 

 London, in the spring, 1889 — this cat malady, occurring in a 

 house where diphtheria soon afterwards appeared amongst the 

 children, was of a widespread nature ; a veterinary sui^eon — 

 Mr. Daniel — informed me that at that time he had several 

 patients amongst cats affected with the disease, consisting in an 

 acute catarrhal affection, chiefly of the respiratory passages. He 

 furnished me with two such animals : one that after an illness of 

 several weeks had died, another that was sent to me in a highly 

 emaciated state, affected with severe broncho-pneumonia ; this 

 animal was paralyzed on the hind limbs. In both instances the 

 post-viortem examination showed severe lung disease, broncho- 

 pneumonia, and large white kidneys due to fatty degeneration of 

 the entire cortex. A similar condition is met with in the human 

 subject in diphtheria. Further, I received from Dr. Thursfieldy 

 of Shrewsbury, the body of a cat that had died after a few days' 

 illness from pneumonia in a house in which children were ill with 

 diphtheria ; another cat in the same house that became next ill 

 with the same lung trouble also succumbed. The post-mortem 

 examination of the animal that I received showed severe broncho- 

 pneumonia and large white kidneys, the entire cortex being in a 

 state of fatty degeneration. 



Subcutaneous inoculations of cats were carried out with par- 

 ticles of fresh human diphtheritic membranes and with cultures 

 of the diphtheria bacillus (Report of the Medical Officer of the 

 Local Government Board, 1889-90) ; hereby a local diphthe- 

 ritic tumour was produced at the seat of inoculation, and a 

 general visceral disease ; in the cases in which death followed 

 after a few days the lungs were found much congested ; when 

 death followed after one or more weeks, the lungs showed 

 broncho-pneumonia and the kidneys were enlarged and white, the 

 cortex being in a state of fatty degeneration ; if the disease in the 

 animals lasted beyond five to seven days, both kidneys were found 

 uniformly white in the cortex ; if of shorter duration, the fatty 

 degeneration was sometimes only in patches. Although in these 

 experiments the bacillus diphtherias was recoverable by cultiva- 

 tion from the diphtheritic tumour at the seat of inoculation, there 

 were no bacilli found in the lungs, heart's blood, or kidney, and 

 the conclusion is justified that, just as in the human diphtheria 

 and in the diphtheria produced by subcutaneous inoculation in 

 the guinea-pig, so also in these experimental cats the visceral 

 disease must be a result of the action of a chemical poison 

 produced by the diphtheria bacillus at the seat of inoculation. 



From this it is seen that the similarity between the artificial 

 disease and the natural disease in the cat is very great, and the 

 question that presents itself is. In what manner does the animal 

 receive or give the diphtheritic contagium in the natural disease ? 

 The natural disease in the cat is in its symptoms and pathology 

 a lung disease, and it is reasonable to suppose from analogy that 

 the lung is the organ in which the diphtheritic process in the cat 

 has its seat. The microscopic examination of the diseased lung. 



