22,6 Gomez and Navarro: Diphtheria Carriers 561 



stain. In all cases we inoculated Hiss's serum carbohydrate 

 media tubes of glucose, saccharose, and dextrin. For control 

 purposes media of the same batch were simultaneously inocu- 

 lated with known cultures of diphtheria bacilli, Park Williams 

 8, Xerosis bacillus isolated from the throat and from the eye, 

 and Hoffmann's bacillus. 



The isolated bacteria were considered diphtheria bacilli if they 

 showed positive Gram's stain, typical arrangement, typical polar 

 bodies, or metachromatic granules and, in Hiss's serum media, 

 if the glucose was acidified strongly, the dextrin slightly, and 

 the saccharose not at all, thus differing from the Xerosis bacillus 

 which does not acidify dextrin but does acidify saccharose, while 

 Hoffmann's bacillus does not acidify any of the three sugars used. 



The virulence test was performed on all the strains isolated 

 from the carriers. The test was performed by subcutaneous 

 injection in the middle line of the abdominal wall of a guinea 

 pig, weighing 250 to 300 grams, of 4 cubic centimeters of a 10- 

 cubic-centimeter salt solution emulsion of a twenty-four hours 

 old Loeffler's blood serum culture, according to the method of 

 Kolmer and Moshage. 2 The criterion used in considering viru- 

 lence of the bacilli was the following set of findings : Local subcu- 

 taneous oedema of the abdominal walls, hyperemia of the 

 adrenals, and death of the guinea pig within four days after 

 inoculation. 



INCIDENCE OF CARRIERS 



All the organisms isolated were Gram positive bacilli of the 

 granular type corresponding to the types B, C, and D of Vves- 

 brook and, in one case, type E, which looks almost like a diplo- 

 coccus when stained with Loeffler's methylene blue but shows 

 distinct granular bodies when stained with Neisser-Gin stem 



From 1,222 children of various ages, pupils attending Santa 

 Clara Public School and inmates of the Philippine Government 

 Orphanage at San Pedro Macati, there were isolated 32 pure 

 cultures of diphtheria bacilli. From 553 adult males and 

 females in Bilibid Prison, there were isolated 6 p«« , culture^ . 

 In all of these, the diphtheria bacilli were ^^ "^^ 

 morphologically, and by the acid reaction in Hiss s carbon* 



^The^tl' number of individuals — * J^^ 

 1,775, from 38, or 2.08 per cent, of whom pure cultures of 



'Journ. Inf. Dis. 19 (1916) 1. 



