PATHOGENIC BACTERIA. 



337 



should be carefully collected in a sterile bottle. If the particles 

 of sputum are likely to have become contaminated, rinse in 

 sterile water. Inoculate on ordinary agar and on blood-agar. 

 The influenza bacillus should grow only on the blood-agar and 

 have the other characters above mentioned. Any organism 

 that grows on both the ordinary and the blood-agar must be 

 rejected. As far as is known, this organism attacks spon- 

 taneously only human beings. It probably does not grow out- 

 side the body in nature. In cases of influenza it is found in 

 the mucous discharges and in the bronchi and longs. It is 

 the predominating organism in some cases of bronchitis.* 

 According to Canon, the bacilli may sometimes be found in the 

 blood. Wollsteint found the influenza bacillus in the throats 

 and nasal secretion in a number of cases in children suffering 

 from other diseases than influenza, but failed to find it in the 

 normal children. She concludes that the organism is present only 

 in cases where the air passages are affected. In cases where it 

 has been found in apparently healthy individuals there should 

 be a careful inquiry into the previous history, since the in- 

 fluenzea bacillus may persist for a long time. Nevertheless, 

 apparently healthy individuals may be carriers of the organism. 

 She further concludes that there is no justification for the term 

 pseudoinfluenza bacillus, and regards the organisms described 

 by others as such, to be merely variations of the same organism. 

 Pertussis Bacillus. — WollsteinJ isolated an organism 

 from the sputum of cases of pertussis which resembled the 

 influenza bacillus in its refusal to grow upon any but hemo- 

 globin containing media. Morphologically it was slightly 

 larger than the influenza bacillus. Wollstein resorted to the 

 Kitasato method of washing the sputum in several changes of 

 sterile water before plating. This was done on agar to which 



*See Lord. Boston Medical and Surgical Journal December 8, 1902. 

 ■fjourn. Exp. Med. Vol. VIII. 1906. pp. 681-691. 

 tJourn. Exper. Med. Vol. VII. 1905. pp. 335-342- 



