146 THE ACUTE SELF-LIMITED INFECTIONS 



dition is transmitted by direct or indirect passage of 

 moist infective material from one patient to another. 

 Therefore an affected eye should be kept covered and 

 dressings handled carefully. The organisms are killed 

 by very weak solutions of the ordinary disinfectants, 

 and, indeed, probably do not resist boric acid very long. 

 The causative germ is the Koch-Weeks bacillus of 

 conjunctivitis. It is similar in size, shape, and staining 

 properties to the influenza bacillus, but differs from it 



FIG. 41. Koch-Weeks bacilhis (pink-eye), 3d generation. X 1000 

 diameters. (Weeks.) 



in that it will grow in the absence of hemoglobin, and 

 with reasonable ease on ordinary culture media. It 

 is destroyed at 60 C. or 142 F. in two minutes. It 

 does not affect animals. There is no specific therapy. 

 Another form of conjunctivitis chiefly affecting the 

 angles of both eyes and running a subacute course is 

 caused by the bacillus of Morax and Axenfeld. These 

 organisms as seen in smears made best from exudate 

 collecting overnight, appear as short, end-to-end, ovoid 



