EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON THE ETIOLOGY OF TYPHUS FEVER

Abstract

We have presented experiments to show that the typhus virus in the tissues of the guinea pig during the height of reaction to the experimental disease does not lose its infecting power when the cells of the brain or of the spleen are disintegrated by repeated freezing and thawing, or by freezing and desiccating, or by crushing by mechanical means, or by grinding into a homogeneous pulp with sand. The virus after such treatment is as actively infective as in the same tissue not subjected to the disintegrating influences. The possibility exists, therefore, of an extracellular condition of the typhus virus. Fourteen attempts to filter through Berkefeld V and N candles the virus contained in the disintegrated tissue have all resulted in failure.