THE BACILLUS OF TYPHOID FEVER. 435 
colony developed upon the plate. In view of these results we are 
inclined to attribute the successful attempts reported by some of the 
earlier experimenters (Letzerich, Almquist, Maragliano) to accidental 
contamination and imperfect methods of research. The more recent 
work of Tayon does not inspire any greater confidence. This author ° 
obtained cultures in bouillon by inoculating it with blood drawn 
from a typhoid patient, and found that these were fatal, in a few 
hours, to guinea-pigs, when injected into the peritoneal cavity. The 
lesions observed are said to have resembled those of typhoid fever— 
congestion and tumefaction of Peyer’s plaques and of the mesenteric 
glands, congestion of the liver, the kidneys, etc. 
The presence of the bacillus of Eberth in the alvine evacuations of 
typhoid patients has been demonstrated by Pfeiffer and by Frankel 
and Simmonds. This demonstration is evidently not an easy mat- 
ter, for while the bacilli are probably always present in some portion 
of the intestine during the progress of the disease, it does not follow 
that they are present in every portion of the intestinal contents. As 
only a very small amount of material is used in making plate cul- 
tures, and as there are at all times a multitude of bacteria of various 
species in the smallest portion of fecal matter, it is not to be ex- 
pected that the typhoid bacillus will be found upon every plate. 
Frankel and Simmonds made eleven attempts to obtain the bacillus. 
by the plate method, using three plates each time, as is customary 
with those who adhere strictly to the directions of the master, and 
were successful in obtaining the bacillus in three instances—in two 
in great numbers and in the third in a very limited number of colo- 
nies. 
The numerous attempts which have been made to communicate 
typhoid fever to the lower animals have given a negative result in 
every instance. Murchison, in 1867, fed typhoid-fever discharges to 
swine, and Klein has made numerous experiments of the same kind 
upon apes, dogs, cats, guinea-pigs, rabbits, and white mice, without 
result. Birch-Hirschfeld, in 1874, by feeding large quantities of 
typhoid stools to rabbits, produced in some of them symptoms which 
in some respects resembled those of typhoid ; but these experiments 
were repeated by Bahrdt upon ten rabbits with an entirely negative 
result. Von Motschukoffsky met with no better success in his at- 
tempts to induce the disease by injecting blood from typhoid patients 
into apes, rabbits, dogs, and cats. Walder also experimented with 
fresh and with putrid discharges from typhoid patients, and with 
blood taken from the body after death, feeding this material to 
calves, dogs, cats, rabbits, and fowls, without obtaining any posi- 
tive results. Klebs has also made numerous experiments of a simi- 
lar nature, and in a single instance found in a rabbit, which died 
