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The Seasonal Prevalence of Hofmann's Bacillus1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2009

A. E. Boycott
A. E. Boycott
Affiliation:
Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford; Assistant Bacteriologist, Lister Institute. (From the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine)
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DURING the last six years (1899—1904) some fifteen thousand examinations of material from throats for the diphtheria bacillus have been made at the Lister Institute. The localities from which this material has been derived have naturally been widespread and varied; much of the work however has been done for local authorities in and near London, and the sources of origin of the major part of the material have not varied very much during the whole period under review.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Hygiene , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , April 1905 , pp. 223 - 232
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1905

References

1 Hofmann was found in 33 per thousand of cases with, and in 142 per thousand of cases without, Klebs-Loeffler. It is probable that these figures by no means represent, at any rate quantitatively, the real frequency of co-existence. In the first place, once Klebs-Loeffler has been found in the film, further search is not always made for Hofmann. Secondly, and perhaps most congently, if the swab is taken accurately from a definite membrane, Klebs-Loeffler may be obtained in pure culture as being the causative organism; if Hofmann has no relation to the local disease, it would probably be absent from the acute specific local lesion. It would be interesting to know how often under these circumstances it is present in other areas of the mouth, nose and pharynx. In the third place, the possibility of the overgrowth of Hofmann by Klebs-Loeffler on a medium favourable to the latter must be considered; this does not however seem to take place in artificial mixtures grown on serum.

It may be not without significance that both organisms have been found more frequently together in monthly and yearly periods which correspond more closely with the prevalence of Hofmann than with that of Klebs-Loeffler (see Appendix, Tables G and H). The cases are however very few in number.