BRONCHITIS 



6B1 



Castellan! 1 describes a bacillus, pathogenic to guinea-pigs, 

 isolated from a case of gangrenous appendicitis. Morphologically 

 it resembled the Shiga-Kruse dysentery bacillus, and was non- 

 motile, produced acid and gas in glucose and maltose and curdled 

 milk, but did not ferment mannite, lactose, and sucrose. 



BERI-BERI. -Various organisms have been cultivated in this 

 disease. Cocci were described by Pekelharing and Winkler, 

 Hunter, Okata and Kokubo, a sporing bacillus by Host, and a 

 large Gram -positive bacillus by Hamilton Wright. Protozoa 

 have also been described. 2 



Beri-beri is now regarded as a " deficiency " disease due to lack 

 of " water-soluble B " from the polished rice which forms the 

 staple food of sufferers. 



BRONCHITIS. Kitchie 3 concludes that acute bronchitis is an 

 infective disease, but is not due to any one specific organism, the 

 most important causal bacteria being the 8. pneumonice and 

 streptococci. In every case of acute bronchitis numerous patho- 

 genic bacteria are present in the bronchi, which are usually 

 sterile in health. The commonest organisms are B. pneumonia., 

 B. influenzce, streptococci, and M. catarrhalis. Spirochaetes are 

 present in some forms of tropical bronchitis ; in others Castellani 

 has described oidium-like and yeast-like organisms. 



CHANCRE, SOFT. An extremely small strepto- bacillus, first 

 described by Ducrey, 4 has been found in the ulcers and buboes. 

 It has not been inoculated successfully on animals, but can be 

 inoculated from a chancre, experimentally, from man to man. 



1 Brit. Med. Journ., 1907, vol. i, p. 1513. 



2 Hewlett and De Korte, Journ. Trap. Med., October 1, 1907, p. 315. 



3 Journ. Path, and Baet., vol. vii, No. 1, p. 1. 



4 Comp. Rend. Congres Internal, de Dermatologie (Paris, 1889), p. 229. 



