326 TEAGUE. 



Link ■* used the cutaneous reaction on 14 cases of tj'phoid and paraty- 

 phoid fever. Killed cultures of Bacilhis coli communis, typhosus and 

 paratypliosus were prepared and all three suspensions used ozi all the 

 patients. One case in which paratyphoid bacilli had been found in the 

 stool some months previously and in which the serum of the patient gave 

 a negative Widal reaction to all three organisms^ showed a distinct cuta- 

 neous reaction to Bacillus paratypliosus and no reaction to Bacillus coli 

 communis or Bacillus typhosus. In general the reactions agreed with the 

 agglutination tests but taken all in all they were rather unsatisfactory. 

 He suggests that it would be interesting to see if typhoid carriers give the 

 reaction. If this should pro^'e to be the case the reaction would be of 

 value in locating such dangerous individuals in the army and among 

 other large bodies of men who live in close contact with one another. 



In glanders the ophthalmo-reaction has given good results with horses 

 and Martel ^ has reported four human cases which gave positive reac- 

 tions with mallein diluted one-tenth. 



Attempts, in most instances unsuccessful, have been made to distin- 

 guish between infection with the bovine and Avith the human, type of the 

 tu.bercle bacillus by vaccinating simultaneously with the two kinds of 

 tuberculins, but the patients react to both. Wolff-Eisner has suggested 

 that by working quantitatively; i. e., by using decreasing dilutions of the 

 two tuberculins and comparing the degree of the resulting reactions 

 better results might perhaps be obtained. 



The reaction has been tried in diphtheria with doubtful results. 



In April, 1907, Wooley ® suggested that, since the leprosy bacillus 

 has not been grown on culture media, nodules obtained from a leprous 

 patient be extracted in salt solution and the resulting extract be used 

 as a vaccine for treatment of the patient. It was but a short step to 

 use such an extract in an attempt to obtain a cutaneous reaction in lepers 

 such as von Pirquet had observed in tuberculosis. I hoped that in this 

 way an aid in the diagnosis of doubtful cases of leprosy might be obtained. 



Since the leprosy bacillus bears more resemblance to the tubercle 

 bacillus than to other pathogenic organisms, extracts ^ei-e prepared in a 

 similar Avay as in the preparation of old tuberculin. 



Four different extracts were made as follows : first, from nodules taken 

 from living lepers, second, from the nodulous skin of a dead leper, third, 

 from the spleen of a dead leper, fourth, a control from the skin of a 

 cholera corpse. The material thus obtained was cut into small pieces or 

 ground in a mortar in case of the spleen, and extracted in 5 per cent 

 glycerine. It was then heated on the water bath until the volume was 

 reduced to about one-tenth of the original. 



*Loc. cit. (1908), 55-1, 730. 



'Berl. klin. Woch. (1908), 45, 451. 



"Proc. Soc. Exp. Med. d Biol. N. Y. (1907), 4, 121. 



