EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF THE NASOPHARYNGEAL SECRETIONS FROM INFLUENZA PATIENTS

Abstract

1. Concurrent infections in the experiments described may be regarded as of accidental nature and are not causally related to the typical effects induced in rabbits by a material wholly free from ordinary bacteria. 2. The influenzal agent exerts an effect on the pulmonary tissue which encourages the invasion of the lung and subsequent multiplication there of ordinary bacteria, such as the pneumococcus, streptococcus, and Bacillus pfeifferi. 3. A similarity is believed to exist between the conditions under which concurrent infections arose in the inoculated rabbits and those which seem to favor the occurrence of concurrent infections during epidemic influenza in man. In no instance did death occur in the rabbits as a result of the uncomplicated effects of the influenzal agent alone. When death occurred in any of the inoculated animals concurrent infection of the lungs by ordinary bacteria was present. The microorganisms most commonly met with under these conditions were Pneumococcus Type IV and atypical Type II, streptococci, and hemoglobinophilic bacilli. Other kinds were encountered less often.