Bacilli Resembling the Diphtheria Bacillus 447 



presence of one-thirtieth of a unit of antitoxin in i cc. of the patient's 

 blood prevents the reaction. Kolmer * has also made use of the S chick 

 reaction for the important purpose of determining how long the anti- 

 toxin serum injected into the patient remains and confers immunity. 

 When the reaction reappears, the immunity can be supposed to 

 have disappeared, and the patient again beconles susceptible to the 

 infection. 



A very interesting paper by Parkf shows the effect of the intro- 

 duction of antitoxin upon the death-rate from diphtheria and the 

 advantages of its employment. From it the following table is taken : 



"Combined statistics of deaths and death-rates from diphtheria and croup in 

 New York, Brooklyn, Boston, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Berlin, Cologne, Bres: 

 lau, Dresden, Hamburg, Konigsberg, Munich, Vienna, London, Liverpool, 

 Glasgow, Paris, and Frankfort: 



Year Population Deaths from diphtheria Deaths per 



and croup 100,000 



1890 16,526,135 11,059 66.9 



1891 17,689,146 12,389 70.0 



1892 18,330,787 ,14,200 77.5 



1893 18,467,970 15,726 80.4 



1894 19,033,902 15,125 79.9 



i89St 19,143,188 10,657 55-6 



1896 19,489,682 9,651 49.5 



1897 19,800,629 8,942 45 . 2 



1898 20,037,918 7,170 35.7 



1899 20,358,837 7,256 35.6 



1900 20,764,614 6,791 32 . 7 



1901 20,874,572 6,104 29. 2 



1902 21,552,398 5,630 26.1 



1903 ^ 21,865,299 5,117 23.4 



1904 22,532,848 4,917 21.8 



190S 22,790,000 4,323 19.0 



Bacilli Resembling the Diphtheria Bacillus — 

 Diphtheroid Bacilli 



Bacillus Hofmanni 



The pseudo-diphtheria bacillus, bacillus of Hofmann-Wellenhof,§ 

 Bacillus pseudo-diphthericus, or as it is now called Baccillus hof- 

 manni, was first found by L6ffler|| in diphtheria pseudo-membranes 

 and in the healthy mouth and pharynx. Ohlmacher has found it 

 with other bacteria in pneumonia; Babes, in gangrene of the lung; 

 and Howard,** in a case of ulcerative endocarditis not secondary to 

 ^phtheria. 



Park ft found that all bacilli with the typical morphology of the 

 diphtheria bacillus, found in the human throat, are virulent Klebs- 



*|'Phila. Pathological Society," Feb. 11, 1915. 



t "Journal of the Amer. Med. Assoc," Feb. 17, 1912, Lvin, No. 7, p. 453. 



X Introduction of antitoxin treatment. 



§ "Wiener klin. Woch.," 1888, No. 3. 

 • II "Centralbl. f. Bakt. u. Parasitenk.," 11, 105. 

 ** "BuU. of the Johns Hopkins Hospital," 1893, 30. 

 tt "Scientific Bulletin No. i," Health Department, city of New York, 1895. 



