CHAPTER XV. 



TYPHOID FEVER — BACILLI ALLIED TO THE TYPHOID 

 BACILLUS. 



Other Names: — Enteric Fever: Gastric Fever. German, 

 Typhus Abdominalis : Abdominaltyphus : Unterleibs- 

 TYPHUS. French, La Fievre Typhoide. 



Historical Summary. — The first definite descriptions of what 

 is now know as the bacillus typhosus appeared about 1 880-81, 

 when it was described by Eberth, Koch, and Klebs ; and on ac- 

 count of priority of pubhcation by the first-named observer it is 

 often called Eberth's bacillus. Eberth in certain cases of the 

 disease found on microscopic examination characteristic bacilli 

 in the intestinal ulcers, in the spleen, and in the lymphatic 

 glands, but made no attempts to grow them outside the body. 

 Gaffky (1884) confirmed Eberth's observations and obtained 

 from the spleen pure cultures in gelatin. He further described 

 very fully the morphological character of the bacilli, and held 

 that the bacilli were not putrefactive, as they did not produce 

 putrefactive effects on artificial media ; but all his attempts to 

 reproduce by their means the disease in different species of 

 animals (including monkeys) were unsuccessful. The position, 

 therefore, was that in the great majority of cases of typhoid 

 fever, characteristic bacilli could be found and isolated in pure 

 culture, but that these did not give rise to the disease in animals. 



The question of the significance of the occurrence of the B. typhosus was 

 complicated when, in 1885, Escherich, working on the first appearance of or- 

 ganisms in the bowel of the new-born infant, described a bacillus which he 

 named the bacillus coli communis, sometimes called Escherich's bacillus. 

 This also was shown to be identical with the bacillus neapolitanus which 

 Emmerich found in the intestines of the victims of a cholera epidemic at 

 Naples. Weisser, who worked at the subject, pointed out that the B. coli was 

 a normal inhabitant of the human intestine ; and, fijrther, comparing the growth 

 characters of this bacillus with those of the typhoid bacillus, noted the simi- 

 larities which exist between the two microbes. From this time forward, the 



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