562 The Philippine Journal of Science 1923 



diphtheria bacilli were isolated. The actual number of car- 

 riers in a group of healthy individuals is higher, because we 

 often noticed in smears from the original cultures typical 

 bacilli, which we were unable to isolate on account of too great 

 contamination or of some defect in the technic, and because 

 only one specimen was taken and examined from each indi- 

 vidual in practically all cases. The above figures, however, 

 give us a general idea of the existence of diphtheria bacilli in 

 the throats of a group of healthy individuals in the Philippines. 



Two years after the first examination in the Philippine Gov- 

 ernment Orphanage at San Pedro Macati another survey was 

 made of the inmates. There were 217 examined, including 

 most of the children previously examined. Nine were found 

 to harbor diphtheria bacilli, in the throat of one of whom the 

 diphtheria bacilli had also been found two years previously. 



Physical examination of the throat of the carriers failed to 

 show anything characteristic, although many of them had mod- 

 erately enlarged tonsils. 



VIRULENCE TEST 



Thirty-five of the thirty-eight cultures isolated were tested 

 for virulence according to the method mentioned previously. 

 The other three cultures were either spoiled or lost and no 

 virulence test was performed with them. The results of these 

 tests are shown in Table 1. 



Four cultures (5, 23, 25, and 33) out of the thirty-five were 

 considered virulent because the injected guinea pigs died within 

 four days after inoculation, with subcutaneous oedema, usually 

 hemorrhagic, and intense congestion of the adrenals. One of 

 the individuals harboring virulent diphtheria bacilli, M.M., a 

 girl about 9 years old, developed clinical diphtheria two days 

 after examination; and the other three (A.S. and N.C., school 

 boys, and B75, adult male) have never shown clinical symptoms. 

 Two other cultures (obtained from P.M. and I.L., school chil- 

 dren) were considered slightly virulent, as the animals injected 

 with them died after six days and showed slight local subcuta- 

 neous oedema and slight or distinct hyperemia of the adrenals. 



The other twenty-nine cultures were considered non virulent. 

 Guinea pigs that die after injection of the virulent culture live 

 longer than four days and death often occurs after a consider- 

 able period of time, either from intercurrent infection or from 

 intoxication due to absorption of bacterial body proteids ; death 



