THE ADMINISTRATIVE VALUE OF THE VIRULENCE TEST FOR DIPHTHERIA BACILLI

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The contention of Loeffler1that virulent diphtheria bacilli can be differentiated from nonvirulent strains only by animal inoculation was lost sight of following the claim of Neisser2that a differentiation can be made by means of special stains. It has therefore become customary to quarantine persons found to be harboring organisms diagnosed on morphologic examination alone as diphtheria bacilli. The realization of the fact that the morphology of the organism is no criterion of its toxin production, and that persons quarantined on morphologic evidence often constitute no menace to the public health, has made necessary some rapid, economical method of determining the virulence or nonvirulence of cultures morphologically diphtheria bacilli. So far, all attempts to differentiate by means of stains or cultural reactions have failed, and, at present, animal inoculation is the only method that has proved of any value. The subcutaneous test for virulence, using pure cultures,

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: