DEMONSTRATION OF AGGLUTININS FOR BARTONELLA BACILLIFORMIS

1. Methods of preparing a satisfactory antigen having been developed, a technique for performing an agglutination test with B. bacilliformis is made available. 2. As a result of repeated intravenous injection of living cultures of B. bacilliformis at short intervals, rabbits have been found to produce a high titre of specific agglutinins which, under the conditions obtaining in the present series of experiments, begins to decline after about one month following the last inoculation. 3. Sera from six cases of bartonellosis in different stages of its several manifestations have been shown by the agglutination test to contain a low but definite titre of circulating antibody. 4. Several of these same sera have been shown to contain as well a significantly high titre of agglutinins for three strains of Proteus. No definite conclusions can be drawn from this phenomenon since the case histories had not been probed for the possibility of typhus fever; and since the relatively high titres obtained with a few of the present sera may very well fall within the extremes of normal serum titres.