EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF THE NASOPHARYNGEAL SECRETIONS FROM INFLUENZA PATIENTS

Abstract

From the nasopharyngeal secretions of patients in the early hours of uncomplicated epidemic influenza during the recurrence in New York City in January and February, 1922, we have again obtained an active agent, pathogenic for rabbits, and have identified this active agent as Bacterium pneumosintes. Four new strains of this micro-organism have been isolated in pure culture and identified with the 1918-19 and 1920 strains on morphological, cultural, and serological grounds. All of the significant characteristics of the old strains, including their effect upon the resistance of the lungs of rabbits to secondary invasion with other bacteria, have been noted in the new strains, which thus have served to confirm and extend our original observations.