158 BACTERIOLOGY OF THE EYE 



had previously obtained the bacillus in pure culture on agar. Peters 

 repeated this, but provisionally hesitated to accept the pathogenic 

 function attributed to it by Morax and Axenfeld, because he found the 

 organism without any marked irritation being present. He soon, 

 however, became convinced on this point, and emphasized its special 

 prevalence in the Ehine Valley. A large number of further communi- 

 cations followed ; these will be noticed more particularly under the 

 heading ' Epidemiology.' 



It is strange that this condition, perhaps the most common of 

 conjunctival affections, and one of great importance, especially for the 

 cornea, should have been discovered comparatively so late. The ex- 

 planation lies in the fact that up till then bacteriological interest had 

 been applied almost exclusively to the acute forms ; and, further, 

 because cultivation of the Diplobacilli is generally only successful on 

 blood media. 



Geographical Distribution and Epidemiology. 



Diplobacillary conjunctivitis has already been demonstrated : 



In America : Cuba (Santos-Fernandez) ; Philadelphia (Sweet, de 

 Schweinitz, Veasy, and Clothier) ; St. Louis (Alt) ; Omaha (Gifford) ; 

 Chicago (Brown - Pusey) ; Boston (G. S. Derby, 1 jun.) ; Montreal 

 (Tooke, McKee) ; New York (Duane, Hastings) ; Milwaukee (Black) ; 

 Illinois (Brown-Pusey) ; and probably in other parts (Smith, Brewerton, 

 Randolph) . 



In Paraguay (Elmassian). 



In Africa: Egypt (L. Miiller, Morax, Lakah, and Khouri, Meyerhof). 



In Europe : Glasgow (Pollock) ; Aberdeen (Usher and Fraser) ; 

 London (Eyre, MacNab, Parsons) ; Copenhagen (Lundsgaard) ; Berne 

 (0. Simon, Pfliiger) ; Lausanne (Gonin) ; Paris (Morax and Petit) ; 

 Toulouse (Mallet) ; Clermont-Ferrand (Biard) ; Padua (Bietti) ; Naples 

 (De Lietro-Yollaro) ; Turin (Pes) ; Parma (Corsini) ; Breslau, Rostock, 

 Marburg, Freiburg (Axenfeld and Bietti) ; Westphalia (Schmidt) ; 

 Bonn (Peters, Zur Nedden, Saemisch); Kiel (Christensen) ; Greifswald 

 (Hoffmann) ; Wiirzburg (Bach and Neumann) ; Nuremberg (Alex- 

 ander) ; Yienna (L. Miiller) ; Buda-Pesth (v. Grosz, Scholtz, and 

 Yermes) ; Kasan (Rymowitsch) ; Holland (Nicolai, Rochat, Schoute). 



In Asia : Java (Haan) ; Japan (Hotta) ; Palestine (Butler). 



In Egypt (Miiller, Lakah and Khouri, Meyerhof). 



1 Personal communication. 



