258 MICRO-ORGANISMS AND DISEASE [chap. 



on glycerine Agar at 37° C. or thereabouts. The broth 

 does not become turbid, but remains limpid. The growth 

 in broth appears as whitish small granules and flocculi ; on 

 glycerine Agar the bacilli form minute translucent colonies 

 like droplets, having no tendency to coalesce as growth 

 proceeds. The cultures are also characterised by this fact 

 that they soon die, and therefore sub-cultures cannot easily 

 be carried on through many generations. In stained 

 specimens grown in cultures the bacilli retain the same 

 characters observed in the bacilli of sputum, viz., they show 

 the characteristic bipolar staining. 



These statements and observations of Pfeiffer and 

 Kitasato are very definite, and if confirmed would afford 

 strong reason for believing that in these bacilli we had 

 "found the special microbe of influenza. The life-history of 

 •this microbe would conform with what we beheve to be the 

 facts about the contagium of influenza, its being spread and 

 received by the organs of respiration, and the reception of 

 the infection by the same channel ; the presence in most 

 cases of influenza of some kind of bronchial disturbance 

 more or less pronounced, showing itself at the outset of the 

 disease or a few days later, and increasing after the febrile 

 stage of the complaint had been passed. 



From our own observations of a large number of cases, 

 we find ourselves in a position to confirm the statements of 

 Pfeiffer and Kitasato in all essential points ; and accordingly 

 we have arrived at the conclusion that the particular bacilli 

 as described by them ought to be regarded as the specific 

 microbe of influenza. 



The bronchial expectoration was examined in twenty 

 cases from the living patient ; of these, five were cases of 

 -genuine influenza-pneumonia, that is of pneumonia setting 

 in very soon, a few days, after the attack of influenza 



