PSEUDO-DIPHTHERIA 287 



Pseudo-diphtheria and Diphtheria-like Bacilli 



Diphtheria-like bacilli are not uncommon in wounds 

 and in pathological exudates, etc., and in connection with 

 diphtheria an important question must be discussed, viz. 

 the occurrence and nature of the so-called pseudo-diphtheria 

 bacilli. The term was originally used by Loffler, and by 

 the rule of priority should be reserved for the organism 

 described by him under this name. The pseudo-diphtheria 

 bacillus of all authors is an organism occurring in the 

 throat in various anginal conditions, scarlet fever, etc., 

 and occasionally in the throats and noses of well persons, 

 and is non-pathogenic to guinea-pigs. Park and Beebe 

 met with it in twenty-seven out of 330 healthy throats 

 examined by them. Roux and Yersin, Abbott and Frankel 

 describe it as morphologically resembling the Klebs- 

 Loffler bacillus, while Loffler, von Hofmann, Koplick, 

 Park and Beebe, Peters, and Hewlett and Miss Knight, 1 

 consider that an organism differing somewhat from the 

 Klebs-Loffler bacillus should alone be termed the pseudo- 

 diphtheria bacillus ; to avoid confusion it is best to 

 designate it the Hofmann bacillus. 



Morphology. Typically, the Hofmann bacillus is a 

 shortish rod tapering towards the ends, which are rounded, 

 the average length being from 1'5 ^ to 2 /*, and it occurs 

 in pairs, resembling two suppositories placed base to base. 

 It is non-motile, does not form spores, is arranged in a 

 parallel grouping like the Klebs-Loffler bacillus (due to the 

 same mode of division), and involution forms are, as a 

 rule, not met with (Plate VII. a). It is Gram-positive, 

 and stains deeply and regularly with Loffler' s methylene 

 blue, segmentation and polar staining usually being absent. 

 With Neisser's stain no inky granules are perceptible, as is 

 the case with the diphtheria bacillus. 



1 Trans. Brit. Inst. of Prev. Med., vol. i, 1897. 



