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A report on the bacteriology of the nasopharynx in two isolated communities is given in this paper. The first community studied was in southern Alabama near the Gulf of Mexico, the second in the interior of Labrador. What was regarded as the normal flora was determined in each place. During the course of the studies, epidemics of nasopharyngitis or colds occurred in Alabama and of tracheitis in Labrador. These outbreaks were also studied bacteriologically.The report embodied in this paper belongs naturally to the series of reports already published by Jordan, Park, Bloomfield, Noble and others on the nasopharyngeal flora in health and disease. The earlier studies were carried out in large population centers in which the environmental factors are numerous and uncontrollable.In an effort to minimize the extraneous factors, we undertook the study of isolated communities, wl~ere life is simple, outside contacts infrequent, and environmental factors more accurately determinable and controllable. MethodsThe method pursued was that of taking nasopharyngeal swabs by means of West tubes. The swabs were drawn from the glass tube with sterile forceps and placed in tubes containing 5 per cent blood hormone broth. When cultures were taken at a distance from the laboratory they were placed immediately in a waterjacketed container at 37°C. for transport. Usually the tubes were incubated at 37°C. for three hours in order to secure uniform incubation periods independent of transportation times and to suppress the Gram-negatlve cocci as well as to promote growth of pneumococci and Pfeiffer bacilli if present in small numbers. 643 on

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