112 STUDY AND IDENTIFICATION OF BACTERIA 



Smears made from conjunctival secretion show large numbers of small Gram- 

 negative bacilli, especially contained within pus cells, but also lying free. They are 

 more difficult to cultivate than the influenza bacillus, but the same general methods 

 hold. The vitality of this organism is very slight so that almost immediate trans- 

 ference of material is necessary. Flies are an important factor in Egypt. The 

 period of incubation is short, twelve to thirty-six hours. The best medium is a 

 mixture of glycerine agar and hydrocele or ascites fluid. At first we rarely obtain 

 pure cultures. The colonies are dewdrop-like and first show themselves in about 

 thirty-six hours in incubator cultures. 



It would seem that blood agar is a better medium than a serum one. 

 Many haemoglobinophilic bacteria will grow with only i to 500 haemo- 

 globin, so that growth on serum might be explained by slight blood 

 admixture. 



Some have thought that repeated infection with the Koch- Week's bacillus was 

 the cause of trachoma. Others have regarded other haemoglobinophilic bacteria as 



FIG. 30. The Koch- Weeks Bacillus. (Hansell and Sweet.) 



causative. According to the views of Park and Williams the inclusion bodies of 

 Prowazek, supposed to be characteristic of trachoma, are simply clumps of extremely 

 small, coccoid haemoglobinophilic bacteria. Besides these organisms the Gonococcus 

 in smears from gonorrhceal ophthalmia is stated to show involution forms, making 

 a resemblance to trachoma bodies. 



Noguchi thinks that while there is a morphological similarity between degenerated 

 haemoglobinophilic bacteria and cell inclusion^, yet in the latter, the elementary 

 bodies are much smaller than the bacterial granules, and the initial bodies less definite 

 in contour. He was able to infect the conjunctivae of monkeys with inclusion bodies 

 material, but not with haemoglobinophilic bacilli. 



Diplobacillus of Morax. This organism causes mild blepharo-con- 

 junctivitis chiefly at the internal angle of the eye. They are about i or 



