162 The Philippine Journal of Science wie 



EXPERIMENTAL CULTIVATIONS 



Discrepancies among the reports were noticed when, in the 

 summer of 1914, a case of bubonic plague was encountered at 

 the Charity Hospital in New Orleans. The organism from this 

 and the next two cases that appeared were studied within a 

 few days of isolation. (18) For comparison, the strain that 

 had been isolated two years previously from a New Orleans 

 rat, at the time of an epidemic in Havana, was tested in parallel. 

 In a few fermentation tests with Hiss's litmus serum-waters 

 dextrose was fermented strongly, galactose weakly, and levulose 

 and maltose, among others, not at all. The only value of these 

 results was the demonstration of similarity between the old rat 

 strain and the newly isolated human strains. The inactivities 

 noted, particularly in view of disagreement among reports, were 

 at the time thought possibly to indicate that the New Orleans 

 strain differed from those encountered elsewhere. It seemed 

 that, could this be established and foreign centers of infection 

 by plague of the same type be located, the original source of 

 the New Orleans invasion might be traced. This possibility 

 made the study of the organisms of rather more than academic 

 interest. An attempt was made to secure other strains for 

 comparative study, but this was not successful, and the subject 

 was not pursued. 



The opportunity having now arisen to do so, I have compared, 

 under various conditions, the four New Orleans strains and six 

 strains carried in the biological laboratory of the Bureau of 

 Science. For convenience the organisms have been designated 

 by letters as follows: 



Strain A. From New Orleans rat, 1912. 



B. From New Orleans plague case 1, 1914 (case fatal, organ- 



isms killed rats and guinea pigs). 



C. From New Orleans plague case 2, 1914 (case rapidly 



fatal) . 



D. From New Orleans plague case 3, 1914 (case recovered). 



E. From Iloilo, 1912. 



F. Manila case. 



G. Strain "Manila VIII." 

 H. Strain "M I." 



I. Strain "M. II." 



J. "Plague avirulent," laboratory strain. 



Strains E, F, and G were furnished by Dr. J. A. Johnston; 

 strain /, by Dr. 0. Schobl ; and strains H and /, by Mr. A. Guz- 

 man; all of the biological laboratory, Bureau of Science. The 

 two last-mentioned strains are said to have been isolated by 



