Scientific Proceedings. 



(ii3) 49 



water, followed with alcohol. Two flasks each containing 50 c.c. 

 of ascites broth (peptone broth 2 parts, ascitic fluid heated to 55 0 C. 

 for 45 minutes 1 part) were inoculated 1 at once with 1 c.c. and 3 

 c.c. of blood, respectively, and placed in the incubator at 37 0 C. 

 for 24 hours. At the end of this time both flasks appeared sterile, 

 the corpuscles having settled, the supernatant fluid being clear. 

 Subcultures made at this time upon ascites-agar, glycerin-agar, 

 and Loffler's serum, and kept under aerobic and anaerobic condi- 

 tions remained sterile; and the flask of ascites broth containing 

 1 c.c. of blood remained permanently sterile. 



Four cubic centimeters of the mixture of 50 c.c. of ascites broth 

 and 3 c.c. of blood, which had been kept in the incubator at 36 0 C. 

 for 24 hours, were injected under the skin of the chest of a healthy 

 medical student aged 24, just finishing desquamation after an 

 uncomplicated attack of scarlet fever, and who readily gave his 

 consent to the experiment. This man was not in the same hos- 

 pital as the boy furnishing the blood for injection, but had been 

 for twenty-six days in a different institution, at that time as well as 

 before and afterward entirely free from measles. 2 So far as could 

 be learned, and careful inquiry was made, the man injected had 

 not had any disease at all resembling measles except scarlet fever. 

 At no time did any local symptoms appear at the site of the 

 injection. On the thirteenth day after injection the temperature 

 was 10 1 0 F. ; in the evening it rose to 103 0 F. At 9 the following 

 morning he was given a warm bath and immediately afterward a 

 red, papular, blotchy eruption broke out on the forehead and 

 spread quite rapidly to the face, neck and chest. Dr. James B. 

 Herrick, who saw him at this time, felt no hesitency in making the 

 diagnosis of measles. By 2 o'clock an unmistakably typical full- 

 blown, rubeolous rash was present over the greater part of the 

 body. The temperature remained above normal for two days, 

 when it fell to normal about the same time that the eruption began 



1 In experiments I and 2 a few drops of blood were allowed to run out before 

 inoculating the ascites broth, which was done without the needle of the syringe touch- 

 ing the culture fluid. 



2 In both experiments the injections were made by the author. At the time the 

 injections were made he had not seen any cases of measles within 24 hours. When in 

 the measles ward the usual precautions were used and, of course, similar precautions 

 were followed when visiting the subjects of the experiments — clean long gowns, caps, 

 clean hands, etc. Freshly autoclaved syringes were used for the injections. 



