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horse showed loss of appetite and appearance of sickness. Within 

 two days he developed a severe enteritis, of which he died on the 

 seventh day. The body was buried, but was dug up in the night by 

 a laborer who cut off the hind quarters, took them home, and dis- 

 tributed the meat among friends and neighbors. 



Withm three days 34 persons who had eaten of this meat became 

 ill with symptoms of severe gastro-enteritis. A 72-year-old man 

 died after five days; the others recovered in three to eleven days. 



This outbreak was investigated by Dr. H. Segawa, a medical 

 officer of the province and former member of the institute at Tokyo, 

 who isolated from the remains of the horseflesh by plate cultures 

 and animal inoculations, an organism identical with the bacillus of 

 mouse typhoid. A culture was sent to Shibayama, who carefully 

 verified it (details not given). 



Shibayama concludes: In all cases the close relationship between 

 the bacillus of mouse typhoid and the illness was established; and he 

 thinks this organism must be accepted as the direct cause of the 

 outbreaks. 



Referring to Loeffler's uniformly negative human experiments, he 

 calls attention to known cases where men have taken virulent cul- 

 tures of typhoid, diphtheria, etc., without infection. According to 

 many bacteriological investigations, B. typTii murium is identical with 

 the bacillus of enteritis. If it is proven that the latter is a cause of 

 acute gastro-enteritis then the conclusion is likewise justified that 

 the B. typhi murium is frequently pathogenic for man, causing an 

 acute gastro-enterities. 



Fleischanderl "* reports six cases of illness — three severe and three 

 mild — occurring in his practice in the latter part of April, 1908, pre- 

 senting the following symptoms : Onset with rapidly increasing body 

 pains, followed in a few hours by diarrhea, rise of temperature, and 

 general prostration; in the next two or three days aggravation of the 

 symptoms, fever (39° to 40° C), copious diarrhea, vomiting (in one 

 case), severe body pains, vertigo, and considerable prostration. 

 Symptoms -abated quickly in a few days, leaving considerable pros- 

 tration, convalescence requiring two weeks in one case. In the less 

 severe cases there was no fever, and the other symptoms were gener- 

 ally milder. 



The simultaneous appearance of these and other similar rumored 

 mild cases among the neighbors (about 20 in all) pointed to a common 

 cause. It was found that three of the six cases were in people who 

 had handled mouse-typhoid cultures the day before their illness, 

 taking no precautions to avoid infection. 



a Fleischanderl, Fritz: Mitteilung fiber einige Krankheifsfalle, hervorgex-ufen durch 

 Maustyphusbazillen. Munch, med. Woch., vol. 56, Feb., 1909, p. 392. 



