30 BACTERIOLOGY OF THE EYE 



readily found the organism in the milky secretion at the canthus, and many con- 

 sidered that this condition was a slight degree of the specific disease. 



Further investigations by Gallenga (1886), Fick (1887), Frankel and Franke 

 (1887), Schreiber (1888), showed this organism to be so widespread on the con- 

 junctiva that any idea of a pathogenic function in xerosis must be given up. 

 Using suitable media, especially blood-serum, Fick (' Uber Micro-organismen im 

 Conjunctival Sac,' Wurzburg, 1897) demonstrated that bacilli could be found in 

 80 per cent, of normal conjunctive, and in 100 per cent, of pathological con- 

 junctive and operation cases. These bacilli were Gram positive for the most part, 

 and their shape and characteristics agreed more or less with those of the B. xerosis. 

 Fick described several varieties (a, b, c), and discussed the question whether these 

 belonged to a group with the B. xerosis and the non-pathogenic Luftstiibchen 

 previously described by v. Michel. ' This organism,' wrote Fick, ' should be 

 familiar to every one who is looking for the specific cause of any disease, if he 

 wishes to avoid still further increasing the present confusion ' a warning which 

 was later greatly neglected. 



Frankel and Franke found the bacillus in many cases of chronic conjunctivitis, 

 phlyctenules, and trachoma ; that they did not find it on the normal conjunctiva 

 can be explained by its lower vitality in this situation, and the greater difficulty in 

 growing it. The definite conclusion from all these findings, that the bacilli are 

 not pathogenic was emphasized by Baumgarten (Lehrbuch, 1890). 



They appear again in the literature as pathogenic, for Kartulis, following up the 

 findings of Koch (Koch-Weeks bacillus), obtained from certain cases cultures 

 which he considered to be pure Koch-Weeks bacilli, although they obviously were 

 the Xerosis which accompanied those organisms. 



Weeks avoided this mistake, and showed that the club-shaped bacillus had 

 nothing to do with the disease. When the conjunctiva was infected by them, no 

 result followed, and a catarrh only resulted on an admixture of the other smaller 

 Koch-Weeks bacilli. Weeks' experiments were a definite proof of the very 

 frequent occurrence of harmless organisms in diseases caused by quite another 

 germ. 



Nevertheless these bacilli were later considered by Gelpke and Pes as the cause 

 of epidemic conjunctivitis, the latter stating that the Koch-Weeks organism was 

 identical with the diphtheria bacillus or B. xerosis (which he held to be the same 

 organism). On account of similar findings, Eyre considered the organism, which 

 he took to be an attenuated diphtheria bacillus, as the cause of follicular con- 

 junctivitis. Schmidt and Kuchowski described it in cases of trachoma, without 

 attributing any definite causal connexion. In the light of Fick's results one might 

 have expected a universal acceptation of the presence of the Xerosis bacillus on the 

 normal conjunctiva, and have considered the recurrence of these errors as im- 

 possible. For some considerable time there was a want of agreement about its 

 occurrence. Many researches on the presence of organisms, especially with rela- 

 tion to disinfection, did not attempt their exact classification (Gayet, Van Genderen 

 Stort, Santos Fernandez, Stroschein). Many others (Gifford, 1886; Bernheim, 

 1893 ; Hildebrandt, 1893 ; Franke, 1893 ; Gombert, 1889 ; Gasparrini, 1893 ; 

 Blagoweschenski, Bach, 1894 ; Eyre, 1895 ; Puccioni, Foote) never found the 

 organism on the normal conjunctiva; other authors (Lachowicz, Walkowitsch) 

 did so only exceptionally. 



A gradually increasing number of investigators found the organism either 

 frequently or almost invariably (Frankel, Uhthoff, Schanz, 1896 ; Peters, 1897 ; 

 Morax, 1893; Cuenod, 1894; Coppez, Trousseau, 1894; Axenfeld, 1896; Heiners- 

 dorff, 1898; Lawson, 1898; Dalen, 1899; Spronck, 1896; Hirota, 1901). The 

 text-books and hand-books of bacteriology considered its almost invariable 



