MENINGITIS DUE TO THE INFLUENZA BACILLUS OF PFEIFFER (HEMOPHILUS INFLUENZAE)

Abstract

The first authentic case of influenza bacillus meningitis was described by Slawyk¹ in 1899. Pfeiffer himself supervised the bacteriologic work. Earlier cases in which gram-negative bacilli were demonstrated were reported by Pfuhl,² Haedke³ and Fraenkel,⁴ but the bacteriologic studies were inconclusive. During the years that followed a few scattered cases were reported, but it was not until 1911 that a real impetus was given to the study of influenza bacillus meningitis by Dr. Martha Wollstein,⁵ who reported eight cases that she had studied in a little more than a year. She made a careful analysis of the spinal fluids and did virulence tests on the strains of the bacilli, including the experimental production of the disease in monkeys, and treated successfully two of these monkeys with a serum that she had prepared by immunizing goats. In these publications the literature was carefully reviewed. Since 1911