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Report of the Bacteriologist.
BACTERIOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT.
The chief business of the Department has naturally
been the examination of material from suspected cases of
diphtheria. Of these, 426 have been received. The specific
bacillus was found in 207, whilst 192 gave a negative result,
and in 27 it was found impossible to decide with certainty. A
large experience of specimens examined on behalf of the Lords
of the Admiralty having shown that the negative or doubtful
result of a first examination was not absolutely reliable,
the practice has for some time past been adopted of making
a second examination in all such cases, with the result that
in several the specific organism has been detected. The
reason is, that when only very few diphtheria bacilli are
present, the colonies which spring from them may easily be
missed at the first search, but, when the progeny of the
original bacilli are spread over the surface of the medium,
the preferential growth which they show upon the latter
enables them to be far more easily detected. Having tried
several media, I now invariably use Kanthack's. Its transparency
is a great advantage, and it certainly gives the
diphtheria organisms a start over nearly all others. It has
frequently been found possible to report positively within
nine hours of the receipt of the material, a matter of the
greatest consequence.
Appended to this report will be found a chart showing
the number of notifications of diphtheria and membranous
croup (which must be regarded as identical), the number of
specimens received, and the number of deaths, in each fourweek
period during the year.
The total number of notifications was 1,338, and of
deaths 193, a case mortality of 14.42 per cent. I would
remind the Vestry that the total case mortality shown by the