566 A MANUAL OF BACTERIOLOGY 



to salicylates suggests a protozoan organism, if an organism be the 

 cause. 



RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS (ARTHRITIS DEFORMANS). This disease, 

 which is probably not a single one, may sometimes be caused by 

 an intestinal, urinary, pyorrhceic, or other toxaemia. Blaxall l 

 found in the synovial fluid, and occasionally in the blood, a minute 

 bacillus measuring 2 p. in length. It possessed marked polar 

 staining, was decolorised by Gram's method, and could only be 

 stained by prolonged (3-5 days) immersion in anilin methylene blue. 

 The organism can be cultivated on agar, on serum, and in broth. 

 In a clear broth, after three days, minute shining, yellowish particles 

 appear and increase in amount, giving rise on shaking the flask to 

 an appearance of " gold dust." Inoculation experiments on 

 animals failed. 



Poynton and Paine 2 isolated a diplococcus (? a form of their 

 D. rheumaticus) from an osteo-arthritic joint, which produced 

 arthritis, with osteo-arthritic changes, when injected intravenously 

 into rabbits. 



Crowe 3 has found a micrococcus of peculiar type in the urine 

 in many cases. It may be isolated on the neutral-red egg medium 

 (p. 235), and a vaccine prepared with it seems to be of service in 

 treatment. The organism is allied to the M. epidermidis and has 

 been named by Crowe M . deformans. 



RHINOSCLEROMA. A bacillus has been described in this disease. 

 It is a short rod, with rounded ends, encapsuled, and frequently 

 linked in pairs. The organism is non-motile, does not stain by 

 Gram's method, and forms on gelatin a whitish growth without 

 liquefaction like that of Friedlander's pneumo -bacillus. Milk is not 

 coagulated. The organism is slightly pathogenic. It is doubtful 

 if it is the causal agent. 



RINDERPEST. Simpson, Koch and Eddington described bacilli 

 in this disease, but Nicolle and Adil-Bey have found that the virus 

 passes through a procelain filter, and the organism therefore is 

 probably ultra-microscopic. 



TRACHOMA. Various organisms have been observed in this 

 disease, e.g. a diplococcus by Sattler, gonococcal-like organisms 

 by Lindner and others (it is even suggested that the organism may 

 be an "involuted" gonococcus), the Koch-Weeks bacillus, the 

 Morax-Axenfeld diplobacillus and the pneumococcus. Minute 

 cell-inclusions, which may be demonstrated by the Giemsa method, 



1 Lancet, 1896, vol. i, p. 1120 (Bibliog.). 



2 Brit. Med. Journ., 1902, vol. i, p. 79. 



3 Lancet, i, 1913, p. 1377, and ii, 1913, p. 1460. 



