CHAPTER II. 

 TYPHOID FEVER, 



BACILLUS TYPHOSUS (EBERTH-GAFFKY) . 



General Characteristics. A motile, flagellated, non-sporogenous, 

 non-liquefying, non-chromogenic, non-aerogenic, aerobic and option- 

 ally anaerobic, pathogenic bacillus, staining by ordinary methods, but 

 not by Gram's method. 



Typhoid fever, "typhus abdominalis, " enteric fever, 

 "la fievre typhique," is a disease so well known and of 

 such universal distribution, that no introductory remarks 

 concerning it are necessary. 



The bacillus of typhoid fever (Bacillus lyphosus) was 

 discovered in 1880 by Eberth* and Koch,f and was first 

 secured in pure culture from the spleen and lymphatic 

 glands four years later by Gaffky.J 



Fig. 165. Bacillus typhosus, from a twenty-four-hour-old agar-agar 

 culture. X 650 (Heim). 



Distribution. The bacillus is both saprophytic and 

 parasitic. It finds abundant opportunity, in nature, for 

 growth and development, and, enjoying strong resisting 

 powers, can accommodate itself to its environment much 

 better than the majority of pathogenic bacteria, and can 



*"Virchow's Archiv," 1881 and 1883. 



f " Mittheilungen aus dem kaiserl. Gesundheitsamt," 1, 45. 



t Ibid., 2. 



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