140 
THOMPSON YATES LABORATORIES REPORT 
Previous Literature 
Shongolowicz 39 considers the importance of examining the tissues as well as 
the discharge for organisms. In the crushed contents of follicles he found very small 
short rods which stained badly and chiefly at the poles. They grew on all media, but 
poorly ; they grew best on flesh peptone-agar, producing a greenish colour. 
Inoculation of rabbits and cats produced a certain similarity to trachoma in 
man. 
Shongolowicz does not doubt that he has found the true cause of trachoma, 
and ascribes the discovery of cocci by Sattler to the difficulty of staining the 
organism, and the fact that it stains bipolarly. (It is not unlikely that this organism 
staining bipolarly was the xerosis bacillus). 
In twenty-six cases of trachoma he found staphylococcus albus in twelve ; 
staphylococcus citreus in three ; staphylococcus aureus in nine ; staphylococcus cereus 
albus in three ; and in seven cases the short bacillus. 
Muller, 34 from the secretion in trachoma disease, obtained a slender bacillus, 
which resembled morphologically and culturally the influenza bacillus. In fifteen 
cases he found the bacillus eleven times. He further remarks that he found the 
bacillus in old cicatricial trachoma only when there was a certain amount of discharge. 
The description of the bacillus would apply to the Koch-Weeks bacillus, and 
in this respect his observations agree with mine. 
Logetschnikow 30 thinks that follicular catarrah and trachoma are not one 
and the same, their identity has yet to be proven. He thinks that the micro-coccus 
of Michel should be more appropriately designated as the coccus of follicular catarrh 
instead of trachom-coccus. 
Schmidt, 38 in forty-seven out of fifty-eight cases, failed to obtain cultures of 
the trachom-coccus, which he found to possess great morphological resemblance to 
the staphylococcus pyogenes. Inoculation produced a severe muco-purulent con- 
junctivitis in dogs, rats, and rabbits. In pigeons, he states that the cocci produced 
typical trachoma. 
Sternberg 43 remarks that the description of the trachom-coccus would apply 
to some of the more common pus cocci, e.g. Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus, which 
have also been shown to consist of two hemispherical halves separated by a narrow 
line of sub-division. 
Kartulis failed to find Sattler's trachom-coccus or any other organism in 
the contents of a trachomatous follicle. He states that if treatment be neglected in 
muco-purulent catarrh caused by Koch-Weeks bacillus, a granular infiltration of the 
conjunctiva results, which subsequently offers the clinical picture of trachoma. 
Wilbrand, Saenger, and Staelin 44 observed that in conjunctivitis caused by 
Koch-Weeks bacillus changes remained behind which suggested true trachoma, but 
they add that in these cases follicle formation has existed from the beginning. 
