Abstract
This report is based upon material and data collected within the Arctic Circle by one of us (P. H.) during the summer of 1930 for the purpose of checking the work which led Heinbecker and Irvine-Jones 1 to state “That the immunity shown does not depend on infection by the diphtheria bacillus/'and that “it emphasizes the probability that the antitoxic mechanism is not as specific as is ordinarily supposed.”
Cultures and direct smears from throats of 115 different individuals, 19 specimens of sera, and the results of 60 Schick tests comprise the basis of this report, representing 7 isolated groups of Central and Polar Eskimos of all age-groups and involving practically the entire population of the 7 localities visited. In these cultures and smears, organisms morphologically resembling Corynebacterium diphtheriae were recovered from 48 of the 115 individuals examined.
On the basis of fermentation reactions, the strains here reported represented a number of different groups, corresponding rather closely to those given by Andrewes 2 and his coworkers. Judging by results of these tests, which were made about 3 months after the beginning of the study, no true Corynebacterium diphtheriae were found. However one strain (Bache 4) resembled true diphtheria bacilli in that it fermented dextrose and dextrin but not sucrose and mannitol at the time it was isolated. This resemblance was further evidenced by the fact that 1 cc. of a 48-hour broth culture killed a normal guinea pig weighing 205 gm. within 10 days, whereas the same quantity of the culture did not affect a normal guinea pig of 185 gm. weight which had been given 350 units of diphtheria antitoxin 2 hours previously. These results were again obtained with the same broth culture 3 months later.
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