262 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [7:9— Dec, 1911 



ination was found to be suffering from post-diphtheritic paralysis 

 of the legs. 



In an epidemic of diphtheria a few years ago the spread of the 

 disease was largely laid to rats and cats 8 . The sewage was con- 

 taminated by some unknown carelessness at the isolation hospital, 

 and rats and cats which frequented a nearby sewer became in- 

 fected, as was shown by cultures made from the throat and fur 

 of the animals. The fact that people living in buildings farthest 

 from the sewer suffered least from the disease was thought to 

 strengthen the conclusion that the isolation hospital infected the 

 sewer; the sewer infected the rats (or the cats directly, as was 

 demonstrated in one instance) ; the rats infected the cats ; and the 

 cats infected the people. 



Many of the cases in an epidemic in Portsmouth, England, 

 were traced to infection from cats 9 . It was found that the cat in 

 many homes was described as having had a "bad cold" before the 

 children were taken ill with diphtheria, and in the animals them- 

 selves the Klebs-Loeffler bacillus (the cause of human diphtheria) 

 was found. 



Instances such as these, where the infection may be traced 

 to the family cat or to a neighbor's cat, may be multiplied. Cases 

 where a dog was the carrier of the disease are rarer, but have 

 been recorded. In one instance some dogs were noticed to be 

 suffering from sore throat 1 and to be presenting "signs very near- 

 ly approaching those of diphtheria, as described by physicians." 

 Evidence of the clinical symptoms alone, however, would not be 

 sufficient to establish a case of diphtheria, but further evidence 

 is not lacking in two cases recently reported. In this instance 2 one 

 of two daughters developed diphtheria, was immediately quar- 

 antined in a separate part of the house, and recovered on being 

 given sufficient antitoxin. The other daughter was given a small 

 dose of antitoxin as a preventive. After the recovery of the pa- 

 tient the house was thoroughly fumigated and a new house into 

 which the family immediately moved was also fumigated before 

 they entered it. In spite of all these precautions, however, the 

 second daughter developed a light case of diphtheria, three and 

 one-half weeks after the first girl had been seized. She also was 

 quickly cured by antitoxin. The physician in attendance made 

 a thorough investigation and fixed upon a pet dog belonging to the 

 family as the source of infection in both cases, basing his con- 

 clusions upon the following facts. 



8 Jour. Am. M. Ass., 1909, 52, p. 439. 



9 Ibicl., 1908, 51, p. 1022. 



iLancet. 1908, 1, p. 1143. 



2 Jour. Am. M. Ass., 1908, 50, p. 1192. 



