112 . The Philippine Journal of Science 1917 



the disease. Until these things come, we must continue to work 

 more or less in the dark and to expend our energies in labors 

 which are probably to a great extent useless. 



A SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT KNOWLEDGE AS TO THE BACTERIOL- 

 OGY OF EPIDEMIC POLIOMYELITIS AND THE CYTOLOGY OF THE 

 SPINAL FLUID 



By John A. Johnston 



Certain workers recently reported the isolation of a peculiar 

 streptococcus from throats, tonsils, abscesses in tonsils, and from 

 the central nervous system in cases of poliomyelitis. 



Paralysis has been produced in animals of various species 

 by intravenous and intracerebral injection of cultures of this 

 organism, and lesions of the gray m.atter of their nervous 

 system have been demonstrated. From the nervous system of 

 these animals the streptococcus has been isolated in pure culture, 

 while the other tissues were sterile; it is remarkably polymor- 

 phous and appears to grow large or small according to the 

 medium in which it is grown, even after passage through a 

 Berkefeld filter. 



Using the organism in its large form, paralysis has been 

 consistently produced in animals known to be insusceptible to 

 inoculation with material from epidemic poliomyelitis as here- 

 tofore practiced. After paralysis had been produced in a series 

 of three rabbits, the strain caused characteristic paralysis and 

 lesions of poliomyelitis in monkeys. The exact relation of these 

 results to the facts already established as to the etiology of 

 poliomyelitis cannot yet be definitely stated. It appears that 

 the small, filterable organism which has been generally accepted 

 as the cause of poliomyelitis may be the form which this strep- 

 tococcus tends to take under anaerobic conditions in the central 

 nervous system and in suitable culture media, while the large 

 and more typically streptococcic forms which investigators have 

 considered contaminations may be the identical organism grown 

 larger under suitable conditions. 



In November, 1916, Kolmer reported to the Philadelphia 

 County Medical Society that his examination of over 700 speci- 

 mens of cerebrospinal fluid showed a general increase in the 

 number of cells. In a perfectly clear fluid flowing under in- 

 creased pressure no unusual or peculiar types of cells were 

 found. He reports finding microorganisms similar to those re- 

 ported by Flexner and Rosenau, but claims they are not patho- 

 genic and that animal inoculations were without result. He 



