6io 



Typhus Murium 



Pathogenesis. The organism is pathogenic for mice of 

 all kinds, which succumb in from one to two days when 

 inoculated subcutaneously, and in from eight to twelve 

 days when fed upon material containing the bacillus. The 

 bacilli multiply rapidly in the blood- and lymph-channels, 

 and cause death from septicemia. 



Loffler expressed the opinion that this bacillus might be 

 of use in ridding infested premises of mice, and its use for 

 this purpose has been satisfactory in many places. He has 

 succeeded in ridding fields so infested with mice as to be 

 useless for agricultural purposes, by saturating bread with 

 bouillon cultures of the bacillus and distributing it near their 



Fig. 178. Bacillus typhi murium (Migula). 



holes. The bacilli not only killed the mice that had eaten 

 the bread, but also infected others which ate their dead 

 bodies, the extermination progressing until scarcely a mouse 

 remained in the field. 



In discussing the practical employment of this bacillus 

 for the satisfactory destruction of field-mice, Brunner * calls 

 attention to certain conditions that are requisite: (i) It is 

 necessary, first of all, to attack extensive areas of the in- 

 vaded territory, and not to attempt to destroy the mice of a 

 small field into which an indefinite number of fresh animals 

 may immediately come from surrounding fields. The 



*"Centralbl. f. Bakt.," etc., Jan. 19, 1898, Bd. xxm, No. 2, p. 68. 



