In the bacteriological diagnosis of diphtheria patients, the identification of the causative agent is so urgently required that it is usually not practical to examine its biological characteristicsthoroughly, and unlike in the bacteriological studies of other organisms, the morphological study has a great importance as well as in Mycobacteium tuberculosis.
In order to satisfy this clinical requirement, the factorsin blood agar medium whichaffect themorpholgy of Corynebacteriumdiphtheriae were investigated and the addition of beef heart extract was found to develop the typical forms of the organism. Various fractions from beef heart were then obtained by extracting it with ethanol and ether. In studying the effects of these fractions on the growth, morphology and appearance frequency of metachromatic bodies, it was found that the ether-insoluble fraction contained an effective factor common to gravis, intermedius and mitis, although itseffect on the morphology of intermedius was somewhat incomplete. Among various peptones tested, Tryptose (DIFCO) and S-peptone (EIKEN) were found to be satisfactory for the growth of Corynebacterium diphtheriae.
Furthermore, a new agar medium was prepared incorporating this ether-insoluble fraction, S-peptone, sodium fluorescein, and sodium arizarinate as used by Bregman for screening the suspicious colonies from their coloration. This medium was found to be as satisfactory as Loeffler's medium in regards to the morphology and appearance frequency of metachromatic bodies of the organism even in the initial isolation from patients. However, the rate of positive isolations from a large number of clinical specimens should be studied in the future. it is pointed out that this new medium is superior to Loeffler's medium in that the former gives a constant quality in every lot of preparation.

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The toxicity of 22 species of “cerophilic fungi” named by Hans Moliscch, which include Aspergillus, Penicillium, Mucor, etc., was studied on rabbits.
Method: Each species was cultured in Czapek Dox medium at 25°C for 2 weeks. 1cc each of 1mg and 10 mg saline suspensions of the fungi was intravenously injected into rabbits, which were put under observation for 4 weeks.
Result:
1) Aspergillus flavus, A. fumigatus Fresenius, and A. fumigatus showed a strong toxicity.
2) The toxicity of Mucor, A. ochraceus, and A. oryzae Cohn was comparatively weak.
3) Most of the 11 species of Penicillium tested had no toxicity, but (K) Penicillium, (D-Yellow) Penicillium, ((43) D-White) Penicillium showed a slight toxicity.
4) A. fumigatusFresenius showed a far stronger toxicity thanA.furnigatuse Increase in toxicity due to animal passage is considered to be responsible forthefact.
5) It was confirmed that in all the cases death was caused by infection with cerophilic fungi.

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1) The incidence of relapses was lower and of a schorter duration in summer than in other seasons. Therefore, the season in which this subject was studied, must be always taken into consideration.
2) Intravenous injection of typhoid and paratyphoid vaccine reduced the excretion of dysentery organisms in the early stage of carrier status.
3) Relapses were beneficially prevented by the subcutaneous injection of PVL, At the same time natural healing was accelerated as a result of increasement of agglutinin production.
4) Oral administration of FeSO4-7H2O in combination with antibiotics also proved effective.
5) The tetracyclin decreased the production of agglutinin in the experiment with mice, which seemed to be caused by the alteration of agglutinogen of the bacilli.
A moderate formation of agglutinin, however, was demonstrated when tetracyclin was used together with PVL.

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With the complement-fixation test modified by Casals and Palacios, the field works have been also carried out in Japan. The results vary according to the affected areas and the investigators. The infection rate however, is estimated at about 10-30% around the period of epidemic in summer. With 862 inhabitants in the damp fields of Toyama prefecture, the test was performed at several time intervals, the most frequent being 8 times with one person. The total amounted to 3338. Excluding 111 cases which showed anticomplemental and non-specific reactions, 3227 cases were examined on the complement-fixation test. The results were as follows:
Antibody titer (0) 2680 (83.0%)
Antibody titer 2 (+) 315 (9.8%)
Antibody titer 4 (+) 205 (6.3%)
Antibody titer 8 (+) 23 (0.7%)
Antibody titer 16 (+) 4 (0.1%)
Antibody titer 32 (+) 0
Consequently, 16.1% demonstrtaed over 2 (+), 7.2% over 4 (+) and 0.8% over 8 (+).
According to our classification I-IX Group by the neutralisation test with 103 persons, I group (with almost no antibody titer) consisted of 20 persons, III group 13, and IV-IX group (with over 1.7 neutralisation in dex) 62. The highest neutralisation index was 4.4, and only one person proved to have over 4.0 index. One may conclude from the above results, that the encephalitis virus continued to contaminate a fairly great number of population every year, though no encephalitis case was reported during the years of investigation in this area.

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