DISEASES FROM MICRO-ORGANISMS. 
133 
the prospect of success. This treatment seems to arrest 
the paralysis but has no affect on it after it has once 
developed. 
Acute Rheumatic Fever. 
This disease is generally conceded to be infectious, 
but the cause is as yet unknown. Several kinds of 
bacteria, among them the streptococci and staphylo¬ 
cocci, have been described as its cause. They have 
been cultivated from the joints, blood, tonsils, and 
heart-valves of rheumatic-fever patients. An infec¬ 
tion very much like rheumatic fever has been produced 
by inoculating animals with the cultures. It is not cer¬ 
tain, however, whether these organisms are present as 
the actual cause of the disease, or only as secondary 
invaders. 
Mumps. 
This is an acute infectious disease affecting the 
salivary glands in infants and young adults. It is con¬ 
tagious, being spread directly from one patient to an¬ 
other. The infectious agent is unknown. 
Typhus Fever. 
In 1914 Plotz described a Gram positive organism 
isolated from the blood of typhus fever cases. It will 
grow only in the absence of oxygen and in shape may 
be curved, straight, or coccoid. The same organism 
has also been isolated from the blood of guinea pigs 
and monkeys that have been infected with typhus blood. 
It has not as yet been accepted as being the cause of 
typhus. 
