394 TEXT-BOOK OF BACTEKIOLOGY. 



These results were confirmed by C. Seitz and perfected by other 

 experimenters. Seitz rendered the contents of the stomach alka- 

 line (exactly as in cholera), paralyzed the intestinal movements by 

 opium, and introduced a dilution of typhus bacilli by means of a 

 pharyngeal catheter. A majority of the Guinea-pigs died; large 

 quantities of bacteria were found in the intestinal organs, but the 

 blood was free. The intestinal mucous membrane was much altered 

 in all cases, the spleen and glands being somewhat swollen. 



A. Fraenkel in a similar way injected the bacilli directly into 

 the duodenum of Guinea-pigs, with or without previous ligation of 

 the ductus choledochus. The animals perished in the course of 

 three to seven days; rods were seen in the intestine and spleen. 



These experiments will prompt us to regard them as proof of 

 the specific character of the typhus bacillus. The investigations by 

 Beumer and Peiper, Sirotinin, Wolffowicz, and many other men 

 have shown, however, that the matter is not as clear as might 

 appear at first glance. If in transmission sterilized cultures of 

 bacilli were used instead of viable cultures, the result remains abso- 

 lutely the same; the symptom of the disease as well as the patho- 

 logical condition fully correspond to the picture described before. 

 The question is, therefore, only that of the effect of a pure intoxica- 

 tion, while actual infection cannot be spoken of, as the bacilli intro- 

 duced alive quickly die and disappear even in the body of animals. 



This fact in itself would not yet decide against the specific value 

 of the typhus bacteria. Very similar conditions have been found 

 with the comma bacilli, and led to the correct view that the pecu- 

 liar activity of the excretions of the micro-organisms (most impor- 

 tant in all cases) is manifested especially when an increase of bac- 

 teria is not accomplished in the altogether insusceptible animal 

 body, but only when extraneous forces are able to act. 



This view has been corroborated by the fact that in the typhus 

 bacilli such poisonous substances (easily separable from the micro- 

 organisms themselves) have been produced as belonging partly to 

 the basic substances, the toxines, and partly to the albuminoid 

 bodies, the toxalbumins. We might in this case, therefore, feel in- 

 clined to explain things as in the case of cholera. 



One observation, however, prevents this. It has been found 

 that precisely the same changes produced by the introduction of 

 typhus cultures free from germs may likewise be developed under 

 the influence of the excretions of many other micro-organisms of 

 any origin — for instance, of simple water and soil bacteria — so that 

 all the experiments just mentioned express nothing for the specific 

 meaning of our bacilli. 



