THE FUNCTION OF LISTERELLA IN INFECTION

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Abstract
This report is in part a review of listerellosis in animal and man, and in part an exptl. study of Listerella and its possible relation to infectious mononucleosis. Listerellosis occurs in a number of animals, apparently manifesting itself differently in the different spp. It is probably an animal disease originally which is becoming implanted in man. Different strains of Listerella fall into 2 specific immunological types, and they may be best identified by their capacity to induce an ophthalmic reaction consisting of intense conjunctivitis, corneal infiltration, and pannus. In respect to infectious mononucleosis, the organism was cultivated in the blood of 1 of 17 patients studied; agglutination reactions with the organism as antigen were observed with sera of 13 of 35 patients; experimentally, Listerella induces in animals an infection suggestive of the human disease in some respects, but differing in others; the "heterophile" antibody, a chief characteristic of the human disease, was not stimulated by Listerella under a variety of conditions. The exptl. evidence is discussed; it does not support too well the concept that Listerella is etiologically related to infectious mononucleosis, and the question must still remain open.