CONJUNCTIVA IN HEALTH AND DISEASE 129 
the best results and enabled him to subcultivate the organism up to the twenty-fifth 
generation was a mixture of one part of the blood of a wether with two parts ot a 
two per cent, glycerine-peptone agar and human ascites fluid in the proportion of one 
to two. Even in the oldest cultures he was not able to detect degeneration forms. 
Inoculation experiments on animals with the discharge and pure cultures were without 
result. Successful inoculation was carried out on himself and two of his colleagues, 
an inflammation resulting lasting over a week with the characteristic bacilli present. 
He concludes that Koch-Weeks bacillus is the cause of an acute, often croupous, very 
contagious eye inflammation in man, which may become chronic and result in a 
papillary hypertrophy of the conjunctiva. 
Also that in the folds of the conjunctiva the bacillus can remain for a long 
time and be a possible source of transmission to other individuals and a danger to the 
individual himself in a re-awakening of the inflammation. 
IV. Acute Ophthalmia in which B. Diphtheriae and Streptococcus 
Pyogenes were Associated 
A case of acute ophthalmia was recently obtained which occurred in a female 
child one year old. One eye alone was affected. The inflammation was very intense, 
the discharge profuse, and the upper lid greatly thickened. Films of the discharge 
showed cocci, mainly in pairs, but also occurring in short chains ; a few leucocytes 
contained cocci in chains of four and singly. 
In one instance a leucocyte was seen containing a bacillus stained deeply at the 
poles. A few of these bacilli were also seen scattered about between the cells. 
Cultures of staphylococcus aureus, streptococcus pyogenes longus, and a 
bacillus closely resembling B. diphtheriae were obtained. 
A one day old serum culture of the bacillus was emulsified in one c.c. of 
broth and inoculated subcutaneously into a guinea-pig, 485 grammes in weight. The 
guinea-pig died in two and a half days. At the point of inoculation there was a 
greyish-white purulent exudate with a little surrounding oedema. Pure cultures of 
the bacillus were obtained from the pus at the point of inoculation. 
V. Acute Ophthalmia in a Cat caused by Streptococcus 
Pyogenes Longus 
The cat had, twenty-four hours before the observations were made, been 
bitten by a rat, the teeth of which had caused a penetrating wound of the right lower 
conjunctival membrane. 
When seen, both eyelids were greatly swollen and oedematous ; the edges of 
the lids adhered, and on separation a thick white pus exuded ; the ocular and palpebral 
R 
