Pathogenesis 443 



On appropriate culture-media Wollstein found it might remain alive 

 for two months. 



Metabolic Products. — An endotoxin was found by Bordet and 

 Gengou, the method of preparing which was improved by Besredka* 

 as follows: The growth upon agar-agar is removed with a small 

 quantity of salt solution, dried in vacuo, and ground in a mortar 

 with a small measured quantity of salt. Enough distilled water is 

 then added to make a 0.75 per cent, solution, after which the mixture 

 is centrifugalized and decanted. Of this preparation i to 2 cc. usu- 

 ally killed a rabbit about twenty-four hours after intravenous injec- 

 tion. Subcutaneous injection caused a necrosis without suppuration 

 and without constitutional symptoms. Small quantities of the toxin 

 placed in the rabbit's eye caused local necrosis, with little inflam- 

 matory reaction. The introduction of dead or living cultures into 

 the peritoneal cavity of guinea-pigs caused death with great effusion 

 and hemorrhage in the peritoneal tissues. 



Pathogenesis. — Inoculation of monkeys with cultures of the ba- 

 cillus failed to produce the disease. Klimenko,t however, succeeded 

 in infecting monkeys and pups by intratracheal introduction of 

 pure cultures. After a period of incubation an illness came on, the 

 most marked symptoms being pyrexia and pulmonary irritation. 

 After two or three weeks the dogs died. Postmortem examination 

 showed catarrh of the respiratory tissues with patches of broncho- 

 pneumonia. Healthy dogs contracted the disease by contact with 

 those suffering from the infection. Frankelf obtained similar results. 



The differences between the Bordet-Gengou bacillus and the in- 

 fluenza bacillus are not great. In size, mode of occurrence, grouping 

 and staining there is much resemblance between the two. Cultur- 

 ally, however, they differ because the influenza bacillus grows best 

 upon hemoglobin or blood agar-agar, which is less adapted for the 

 isolation of the Bordet-Gengou bacillus than the culture-medium 

 recommended for its cultivation, upon which the influenza bacillus 

 does not grow well. Further, we have as differential features the 

 peculiar endotoxin of the Bordet-Gengou bacillus, the successful 

 infection of dogs and monkeys with the disease resembling whoop- 

 ing-cough, and the transmission of this infection from animal to 

 animal by natural means. 



The subject of complement deviation as a proof of the specific 

 nature of the organism is still under consideration. Bordet and 

 Gengou found that the serum of convalescent patients fixed com- 

 plement when applied to the bacilU; Frankel and Wollstein, § that 

 it did not. It is claimed by Bordet and Gengou that the diSerence 

 m results came about through the employment of different culture- 

 media in performing the complement fixation tests. 



* Bordet, "Bull, de la Soc. Roy. de Bruxelles," 1907. 

 fCentralbl. f. Bakt.," etc. (Orig.),XLvni, 64. 

 t " Miinchener med. Wochenschrift," 1908, p. 1683. 

 § "Journal of Exp. Med.," 1909, xi, 41. 



