394 SPECIFIC MICRO-ORGANISMS 



organism as a distinct species and as the microbic cause of the 

 disease. Another group^ of inyestigators claim that the globoid 

 bodies are diminutiv'e forms of a coccus, which can be grown 

 aerobically on blood agar. Their evidence is not considered 

 entirely cpnvincing. 



Poliomyehtis or infantile paralysis occurs in epidemics and 

 also sporadically, atta:cking children and young adults. It is 

 characterized by digestive disturbance and fever, which may 

 be very mild, followed by paralysis of one or more extremities 

 as a rule. Death ma'Jr occur, but recovery with permanent 

 paralysis is a frequent result. The mode of transmission is 

 unknown. 



The Virus of Measles.- — Goldberger and Anderson^ in 1911 

 reported the successful inoculation of monkeys with the blood, 

 nasal and buccal secretions of patients sick with measles and 

 also with Berkefeld filtrates. Later investigation' has failed 

 to confirm the claims of these authors although several successful 

 inoculations of monkeys have been reported.'* 



The Virus of Typhus Fever.^ — NicoUe, Conor and Conseil in 

 1910 transmitted typhus fever to monkeys by means of serum 

 which had passed through a Berkefeld filter. Ricketts and Wilder 

 failed to obtain infective filtrates in their study of Mexican ty- 

 phus. Typhus is an acute febrile disease, widely distributed but 

 not very prevalent in any locality. Apparently it is not con- 

 tagious* but is transmitted from man to man by body lice {Pedi- 

 culus vestimenti) . Immunity follows recovery. 



Plotz* and his associates have reported the finding of 

 an anaerobic organism in the blood in typhus, Bacillus typhi- 



' Nuzum, J. W. : Journ. Infectious Diseases, 1918, 23, p. 301, p. 309; Rosenow, 

 E. C. and others, ibid., igi8, 22, p. 281, p. 313, p. 379. 



' Goldberger and Anderson; Journ. A. M. A., 1911, 57, p. 971. 



' Sellards and Wentworth: Bull. Johns Hopkins Hops., 1919, 30, p. 57. 



^Hektoen: Journ. A. M. A., 1919, 72, p. 177. 



' Wilder: Journ. Infect. Dis., igii, Vol. IX, p. 9. Ricketts and Wilder: Journ. 

 A. M. A., 1910, Vol. LV, pp. 309-311." 



" Plotz, Olitsky and Baehr: Journ. A. M. A., 1016, 67, D. iiio?. 



