An experimental study of influenzal meningitis / Martha Wollstein.

  • Wollstein, Martha.
Date:
1911
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: An experimental study of influenzal meningitis / Martha Wollstein. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    both in babies 9 months of age, observed by Caccia29 and by Mya,30 the latter publishing three other cases. In the following year, Jundell31 and Cagnetto32 each reported two pure cases and Bertini33 one, all in children between the ages of 8 and 18 months. In 1904 also, a fourth recovered case, in a boy 7 years old, came under the observation of Thomesco and Gracoski.34 Cattaneo35 in 1905 reports a fatal case in a 4-year-old boy. During 1907, cases were reported by Douglas36 (10 months) ; Dudgeon and Adams37 (10 months); Adams11 (5 years); Sprigg38 (4 years); and Carles39 (11 months), but in the last case no cultures are recorded, only smears from the abundant fibrino-purulent deposit of the lumbar punc- ture fluid. Only one case appeared in 1908, reported by Bentz and Frye.22 In 1909 Cohoe4 placed on record a recovery in an adult, and Davis,40 the two youngest patients known, twins aged 9 and 12 days, respectively. Cohen’s16 patients were 4, 8 and 12 months old, but he chooses to look on the bacillus isolated from his cases as distinct from the B. influenzae because of its greater virulence and the difference in its serum reactions when compared with a strain obtained from Pfeiffer. During 1910, Davis12 reported five additional fatal cases, in infants from 6 to 13 months of age, two being pure. Agar’s publication records Case 1 of this paper. Bitchie’s3 description of the “influenza-like” bacillus found in his three cases shows that very many long filaments were pres- ent, even in young cultures. The fact that after some months of cultiva- tion on blood-agar the bacillus grew on ordinary agar, on which subcul- turing was possible for some weeks, would seem to take it out of the class of influenza bacilli. Simon and Aine41 tell of five cases, four of them in infants. Cases of meningitis, in which influenza bacilli were found in addition to other organisms have been reported by Hogerstedt42 in an adult, Peucker43 in a 5-months-old baby, Hecht14 in a child of 2 years, and Bertini33 in a 6-year-old boy. One of Davis’12 cases was con- taminated by saprophytes, and in another streptococci were present with the influenza bacilli. Nuttall and Hunter,44 while studying the meningo- 29. Caccia: Ref’d to in Centralb. f. Bakteriol., 1904, xxxv, 106. 30. Mya: Gaz. d. Osp., 1903, xxiv, 268; Riv. clin. Pediat., 1903, xxiii, 465. 31. Jundell: Jahrb. f. Kinderh., 1904, lix, 777. 32. Cagnetto: Cited by Ritchie, Jour. Path, and Bacteriol., 1910, xiv, 615. 33. Bertini: Riv. clin. Pediat., 1904, ii, 673. 34. Thomesco and Gracoski: R§v. neurol., 1905, xiii, 44. 35. Cattaneo: Baumgarten’s Jahresb., 1905, xxi, 289. 36. Douglas: Lancet, London, 1907, i, 86. 37. Dudgeon and Adams: Lancet, London, 1907, ii, 684. 38. Sprigg: Am. Jour. Obst., 1907, lvi, 467. 39. Carles: Jour, de med. de Bordeaux, 1907, xxxvii, 106. 40. Davis: Arch. Int. Med., 1909, iv, 323. 41. Simon and Aine: Semaine Med., 1910, xxx, 513. 42. Hogerstedt: St. Petersb. med. Wehnschr., 1895, xii, 123. 43. Peucker: Prag. med. Wchnsclir., 1901, xxvi, 153. 44. Nuttall and Hunter: Lancet, London, 1901, i, 1524.